[phil_will1]

"Well, if anyone seriously believes that the disappearance of 'embedded tax costs' would magically lower the prices under the new system"

It isn't magical at all - it is called price competition. Believe it or not, it is at work right now in any free enterprise system, including our own.

[GSlob]

Well, I happen to believe that flat rate income tax would be fair enough tax, and sufficiently simple, too. And the transition would be easier, for the less transitional complexity is there, the better. [One should not change the rules too much in the middle of the game]. The basic outlines of what is liable to taxation and what is not could be preserved under flat rate income tax without too many changes. Alternatively one would have to up-index by decree every savings and Roth account by some 20% (sales tax rate) to compensate for the future double taxation of them - and that would be inflationary.