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" Used " books and jewels and furniture and paintings and object D'art are ALL now sunject to sales tax. Never heard of " A-N-T-I-Q-U-E-S " ? "Used " clothing, in some parts of this country, are also now sunject to sales tax. Since a " sales tax " is the same as a CONSUPTION TAX , which is what is being suggested to replace ethe income tax ( or didn't you read the article ? ), it stands to reason that there would be NO revocation of a sales PLUS a consumption tax, should this ever ( GOD forbid ! ) pass into being.

No goods nor services will come down in price. That's NOT how the world works.

With a very reduced , or NO ( prefferable ) Capital Gains tax, we'd be far better off, than with a consumption tax on EVERYTHING ; including stock / option / mutual fund investiment. You obviously know nothing about the market.

I don't pay sales tax at the beauty parlour. Should this pass, I would have to. WHERE IS THE SAVING ?

I don't pay sales tax on a lot of things, now. I'm in the higest income tax bracket and yes, I AM over taxed ! This solution, as much as you like it, would make me pay even MORE; unless I stopped buying things that aren't totally necessary. I guess that you have no memories of what transpired, when the " LUXURY TAX " , on certain items, was instituted. Hint, hint ... yacht & luxury boat builders almost went out of business completely.

Don't be grumpy, there is a good reason why you should want this to go through. Discussion of a consumption tax, as you rightfully noted, does not necessarily mean an NRST. However, the NRST is almost by default the type of consumption tax being considered.

In that case, only retail transaction, that is the original point of sell for NEW items would be taxed. Antiques, used jewlery, ext would not be taxed. An IPO might be, but other stocks are traded "second hand" and would not be retail. This is not the same as a luxury tax, and your right, that was dreadful. This would be a 25% tax added to the sale price of a new $300K yacht (45ft Bennetau, sigh) however the cost of producing it (in the US, hint hint) would be 20% less. Non of the components would be subject to tax until it was sold from the dealer, not the teak decking, not the motor..nothing. These are now taxed when ever anyone is employed in production. The end result is a 5% increase in price for the yacht, but you now have your entire gross income to buy it with. No second hand items are taxed, but they are now, the owner or store owner that sells a used item to you is required to pay income tax..or capital gains. So, in that sense, used items are taxed. The states try to put a sales tax on everything, that is a problem for the residents to fix.

This tax will not slow consumption. We now tax in the most destructive point in the wealth creating process. A consumption tax, and especially and NRST would fix this. The economic growth following would be explosive.

As Jim Rob pointed out, competition will eliminate demand pull inflation for most items. Realestate would be a huge investment however. If this goes through, buy a vacation cabin in Maine and get your hair done while you build equity. It is a win win situation.

The big thing that really makes it better than the Income tax, is the end of slavery to the government. We spend 4-6 month out of the year in slavery, the rest of our earnings are spent at the plantation store (also taxed).