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Let's see. Fed NRST 30% + California 8.5% sales tax existing plus another 5-7% to cover its lost state income tax. That makes for a nearly 50% total sales tax.

If you think for one minute that this country won't then incur all the inefficiencies of a barter economy and a black market, I've got news for you. All you have to do is to look at cigarettes, alcohol, and out-of-country pharmaceuticals to see what will happen. Oh and if you think the IRS is invasive, you haven't seen anything until the Feds are breathing down every single person's neck to make sure currently private gray market transactions are included. So, stick out your hand and take your chip because that is where this goes.

A "Fair Tax" is no panacea. Focus on cutting spending instead.

If you think for one minute that this country won't then incur all the inefficiencies of a barter economy and a black market, I've got news for you

It already does with the federal income tax whose overall tax burden keeps increasing with the corresponding number of pages that have been added onto the tax code over the last 98 years. You're naive if you think there isn't bartering and a black market system with a tax code in excess of 67,500 pages. There will be far less bartering and a far smaller black market with a consumption base tax that will increase people's purchasing power and eliminate the increasingly intrusive IRS along with their multitude of tax forms.

A "Fair Tax" is no panacea. Focus on cutting spending instead.

No tax system is a panacea but The Fair Tax will be far better than what we have today. We can focus on cutting spending and reducing taxes at the same time since The Fair Tax will eliminate the IRS's $11 billion price tag.

I think the point you actually make here is if fairtax was in place 20 years ago it might have stopped States like California from going on massive spending sprees. Taxpayers will quickly grow adverse to big govt spending.