The other thing these people never talk about, or even realize, is that there are HUGE economic and social distortions caused by the current tax system, some intentional by the social engineers, most simply due to the law of unintended consequences.
The current system stifles initiative very effectively.
If we ever actually knew the true economic and social price tag of those distortions, I have no doubt we would be staggered by it.
You know how to get rid of that. Simplify the tax code. I have yet to see a good argument against the flat tax. The standard argument is "well, thats how it started out, but then they changed it"
What is to say that would not happen to a sales tax too. The reason I go to Mississippi to buy expensive liquor is because I can actually save some money there, and by the same token, people from Mississippi often drive into Louisiana for the same damn purpose.
Because if you don't buy alcohol at an ABC store in this state, you will not only have to pay the state sales tax, you also have to pay an in-built excise tax, which means you pay a higher price.
In Pascagoula, it is possible to get a pack of Camels for $2.25 plus sales tax. That ain't possible in the City of Mobile, you're lucky if you get away with paying $2.95
What is to say, if the federal government gets this, they won't feel the need to expand upon it, be bold, impose additional surcharges on things they are already taxing in order that they can get more money.
And what if this NRST government decides it wants to do some social engineering on, so it decides that it wants to slap an additional 25% excise tax on the purchase of french fries, or 30% on a certain kind of boat. You'd be surprised some of the excise non-sense that is in the code. And then, what happens if the government decides, in addition to NRST, they also want to find a way to fenagle a VAT in there, adding even more taxes.
Once a government gets away with one tax, it's hard to stop them from expanding.
And if the Sales Tax is such a great idea, then tell me why it is that across the country, retailers try and get sales taxes reduced.
You'd think most people would already know that but judging from the lead-in to this thread, I guess not.
Perhaps they'll learn and maybe this thread will help as we go along.
All one has to do, IMHO, is look at the economic history of the United States prior to the implementation of the progressive income tax and compare that to what has followed.
Few even know that the progressive income tax finds it's modern origins in the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" despite the ease with which one can find out such things in today's world.