A sales tax would discourage spending and hurt the economy. People are pretty shortsighted, but they do notice a 30% tax on their goods, so this would encourage people to buy things from abroad if the costs weren't prohibitive because there would be no tax. People would try to get around it on the internet as well, which would be a nightmare for the federal government to patrol since there is so much traffic.
Income tax is something they can't get around easily, and it isn't something people generally think about on a day to day basis. Same with property tax. You would notice the sales tax every time you went and purchased something, so it would shape your habits accordingly.
A flat tax would have to be at least 28-30% to actually work. It really wouldn't provide many advantages to the system we have now, and a society and economy with a progressive income tax is more stable.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
