Right-oh, Dimples. Exactly which of the FairTax conclusions might it be that you reached that were in agreement with the FairTax??
Do you really expect to be believed when you try the old "I'm only trying to be discern the truth" stunt by claiming you came aboard with a pure heart and friendship in your soul? Your "years ago" posts that I recall sound like nothing of the sort but rather that you have always opposed the FairTax. Claiming otherwise now is (at best) a tad misleading.
The continual pretense so many of you display reminds me of some of the pacifists in Britain before WWII - they thought Hitler was really a good guy down deep who had the best interests of Germany at heart and that he should be "given a chance" to straighten out Germany - all this in spite of his obvious efforts to arm his country for war. Many of these folk were in favor of any number of the "Hitler reforms" because they were as intellectually pure as you.
Their tune changed before 1940 for most though, and then they typically claimed then to always have viewed him with "concern". If you oppose the FairTax there's nothing wrong with honestly saying so. The pretense is what is so ghastly.
With a tax system such as the FairTax I DO believe that consmers will trim their buying habits if they don't like the rate. Trying to fit that into an income tax scenario which is what you're trying to compare it to is meaningless since any such protest at present would serve no purpose at all.
The present tax system encourages - in fact, almost mandates - consumption in preference to savings and investment while under the FairTax the opposite is true which causes a reduced consumption to be more effective and more noticeable to government. In fact, the reduction of consumption will be magnified by the fall-off you mention and rather than adversely affecting a particular industry in moe than the short run (if at all) will merely help the government to notice the taxpayer displeasure more quickly due to pressure from that industry and react to it by rate decreases. In connection with any such decrease there would be an increase in savings and investment to offset ill effects so it is anything but a one-way street.
Lastly, Dimples, you're a fine one to talk about some having "dogma" on these threads as you have continually refused to accept reality when presented to you in no uncertain terms and have made outlandish claims of absurd reasoning in attempting to defeat the FairTax. I might point out that you haven't done so.
Well, sheezam!
Today, just for the hell of it, I was doing a name search on my own name.
Imagine my surprize when I stumbled across this site.
I’m Jay Moreno, of St. Marys, GA - the guy who wrote the precipitating letter-to-the-editor way back when.
So far, a quick, sampling, perusal of the 350-some-odd posts has not dampened my enthusiasm for the Fair Tax one iota.
Jay