Excellent post...the wife and I are nearing retirement and any plan with a national sales tax is a "non-starter" for us. Our income/saving were fully taxed at about 14% federal and about 38% total (all state, local, federal taxes) and now as we are planning several large purchases (truck/RV) 9-9-9 & "Fair" Tax are proposing large sales taxes!! (In addition to our current 8% state sales taxes) Start talking about tax reduction and government cuts and then we can talk about tax reform ie. a 10-15% flat tax.
Are you going to have room in your RV for your kids and grandchildren if they are jobless and homeless?
Most Fairtax proposals use some sort of pre-bate to try to overcome the problem of re-taxing savings. It complicates things, but at least makes it a little less onerous.
I’m not sure how to handle the transition from income to consumption taxes without punishing savers and rewarding debtors. But since there are a lot more debtors than savers, such a plan can get majority suport.