[lucysmom]

The consumption tax, on the other hand, can only be regarded as a payment for permission-to-live. It implies that a man will not be allowed to advance or even sustain his own life, unless he pays, off the top, a fee to the State for permission to do so. The consumption tax does not strike me, in its philosophical implications, as one whit more noble, or less presumptuous, than the income tax.

http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1814

[goldstategop]

The consumption tax doesn't target investments and savings. It only taxes consumption. When you buy an item, you pay a tax to acquire it. We're already familiar with such a tax: the sales tax. I find its implications less troubling than the income tax, which invades my personal privacy and assumes the government has first claim to my assets regardless of whether or not I spend them.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus