@Rockhead,
Rockhead wrote:but the poor pay as much as the rich.
assuming they can buy anything...
The tax can be made progressive. Exclude food. Also exclude housing to a threshold, such as rent to a threshold and purchase of a house to a threshold. Exclude medical care and insurance, at least medical insurance. Also exclude tax on utilities, at least certain ones that are essential for homes, such as electricity and gas. Also we already have enough sales tax on gasoline.
At least the idea deserves a full hearing in terms of pros and cons. It has many potential advantages, such as goods sold in the store bear the same tax burden, regardless of where they are manufactured. This alone could boost domestic production and manufacturing. Also no more breaks for illegal immigrants and others dodging income tax. Example, drug dealers pay tax when they buy stuff. The infrastructure is already there in most places, to collect local and state income tax. With barcoding, excluding food in grocery stores would be easy, It is already done in places like Colorado and it works fine. Enforcement would be easier, because instead of hundreds of millions of people to watch, we only need to watch the retailers, and a handful of them sell the vast majority of goods and services. And we already have local governments watching their tax collections for any abuse.
Bottom line, the idea deserves more consideration than it has received.
