With the FairTax most Americans should have a very good idea of how much they've paid in tax otherwise they have only themselves to blame.
The tax amount will appear on each receipt in a specified form and things not taxed are pretty obvious. Actually, determining the taxes paid would be easier than at present as you hint at in your state.
In addition to the things you observe in HI that present obfuscation, in all states, the cascading, embedded tax costs that become part of the additional cost of everything we buy cannot be calculated with any degree of certainty - but they're certainly there and add unnecessarily to prices.
The same difficulty would be true under any income-based system such as a flat tax - which would also still present the taxpayer with payroll/withholding taxes just as at present (which many people do not presently realize are taxes. thinking they are just somehow due to the government for allowing them to exist). With the FairTax, each and every receipt clearly states the tax involved. If one does not know how much he has paid in tax it is only because he's not interested enough to find out.
The Fair Tax system relies on a certain high level of ideal citizenry, which does not exist.
The average person from middle to low income will not track their Fair Tax contributions. Many of these people do not even save their receipts. They should, but they don't, and nothing exists to tell me that a Fair Tax will change the basic patterns that people follow.
In an ideal world, the Fair Tax system would empower individuals and promote economic growth. In the real world it will likely achieve the latter while doing nothing for the former. In all likelihood, the Fair Tax system will actually give greater power and influence to the socialists/Democrats.
I'm a proponent of the Flat Tax system because of its simplicity. An average citizen would be able to take their W2 form, fill out the tax filing postcard, and mail it in. We could even go so far as to include on the post card a spot that looks like a simple check, in which the citizen will sign over the contents of their income tax withholdings to the government. A carbon copy tear off is saved for their personal records, and in less than 2 minutes, their taxes are done. But just as the act of voting is important to the maintenance of our democracy, the act of filling out a tax form and signing over our money to the government is important. It is the act that empowers us.
How would we feel if our vote were calculated based on our spending habits?
With the FairTax most Americans should have a very good idea of how much they've paid in tax otherwise they have only themselves to blame.How much did you pay in state sales taxes last year?