"what would the nrst do to offset this? all I can see is that it would be neuitral at best, harmful at it's most likely"
It would stop imbedding the cost of our tax system into our domestic production and would, instead, tax all items purchased for personal consumption here in the USA (including imports) equally. That means that no longer would our trading partners ship their VAT relieved goods here to compete with our tax laden goods. It would mean that we could export into their markets at a 20 - 25% reduction in price with profit margins comparable to what they are now. The demand for US goods would increase in many markets around the world, including our own.
What many Americans do not realize is that we currently have a tax system which creates a bias in favor of foreign producers at the expense of our own. This isn't some conspiracy; noone has deliberately designed it that way. However, with globalization sweeping the planet, we cannot afford to ignore this problem any longer.
There are other ways to approach this. VATs are typically border adjustable. However, VATs can be extremely complex and have high compliance costs as a result. Unlike the tax itself, compliance costs are not border adjustable. Also, no one has introduced a proposal for a VAT which would account for about 95% of all federal revenues. The FairTax is the best proposal introduced so far from the standpoint of international competition.
i'm sorry but in no way do i beleive that should the government stop taxing businesses that that tax savings would result in lower prices. the very idea that a corporation won't try to skim as much of that as they can get away with boggles the mind. Stock prices will rise, dividends will rise, and the rich will ger richer.
meanwhile the middle class will have to make up that much more of a diff.