[camle]

you’re the ‘expert economist’, not me. but even I know that the more you tax something, the less people buy of it. items subjected to this tax will plummet in sales, causing losses for their manufacturers, suppliers, etc.

AND you’ll be priving the average Joe out of many things, and for what purpose?

[kevkrom]

you’re the ‘expert economist’, not me. but even I know that the more you tax something, the less people buy of it.

Which includes labor, as well as other forms of income generation, all of which drive the economy just as much (if not more, when considering exports).

I'm no expert economist, but it makes no practical or logical sense that an insidious, multi-layer, front-loaded tax would be less disruptive to an economy that a single-stage, transparent, back-loaded tax.