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If I buy a bottle of Coke for $1 and the government immediately extracts 23% in “sales tax”, that is the same as an income tax.

You are not seeing the big picture.

Whores buy Coca Cola.

Pimps buy Coca Cola.

Shady businesses buy Coca Cola.

All these scumbags would be paying tax under a national sales tax plan. Currently, whores, pimps, drug dealers and millions of shady businesses avoid income taxes in the underground economy.

Good and decent people pay taxes today in the current system--the scumbags of society do not pay taxes under the current system.

Under a national sales tax, everybody--including the scum of society--would pay a national sales tax. Hundreds of billions of dollars currently go uncollected from the underground economy.

Under a new national sales tax, good decent people would pay a fair share because they will not be pulling the cart for the scumbags of society who would be forced to pay their fair share also.

All these scumbags would be paying tax under a national sales tax plan.

It would not be enough! Furthermore, this promotes the motive that so many of us despise: Using the tax code to "punish", or reward, such as "wealth transfer".

The reason we are in the mess we are now, is that someone wants to reward or punish somebody else with a tax. Taxes are for only one thing. Paying the governments bills, not social engineering. Even taxing "pimps an' ho's", jus' 'cause dey's pimp's an' ho's, ain't gewd.

Why do people believe that the NRST is a *cure* for the underground economy? Raising the sales tax from 5% to 30% (it's not 23% the way sales taxes are calculated today) is the surest way to recreate a black market in goods short of introducing rationing or price controls.

If someone has goods they want to sell, and someone else wants to buy them, the two will find a way to make the transaction without paying a 30% tax to the government. Right now, with sales taxes of 4% to 8%, convenience is key and there's only a small black market. But raise sales taxes to 30%, and Katie bar the door, your mall shops will close all their front doors and do all their business in the parking lot outside the trucks!

Perhaps we could create a new government agency to monitor people's finances to demonstrate they aren't making or spending money outside of official, monitored transactions. That's the only way to cure the black market.

We'll call it the Internal Revenue Service.

Currently, whores, pimps, drug dealers and millions of shady businesses avoid income taxes in the underground economy.

In the new world, I suppose they'll be charging customers and johns the 30% NRST, and will only make their purchases (cars, clothes, jewelry) from merchants who are above-board and will report every transaction to the central authorities for tax purposes. Because the NRST magically cures lawlessness that infects the income tax system.

Whores buy Coca Cola.
Pimps buy Coca Cola.
Shady businesses buy Coca Cola.
All these scumbags would be paying tax under a national sales tax plan. Currently, whores, pimps, drug dealers and millions of shady businesses avoid income taxes in the underground economy.

You've got to understand that people with legitimate jobs visit whores, buy drugs and patronize shady businesses.

Whores, drug dealers and shady businesses won't collect and remit sales taxes under a sales tax regime. Furthermore, the legitimate income earned by the john, pot smoker or patron of a shady business won't be captured by an income tax anymore, either. And lastly, Coca-Cola, its bottlers, distributers, shareholders, retailers, etc., are already paying income tax on sales to drug dealers and whores.

Looks like when it comes to the underground economy, the sales tax strikes out.