Mike, excellent article (series) and I appreciated your allowing the two way dialogue.
Here's my comments on your closing statements, if you will.
The initial tax rate was 3% and it got to where it is today because we allowed ourselves to be driven by class-envy. We kept allowing politicians to tell us they were going to soak the rich, and we never noticed that it was us in the middle that were really getting soaked. After all, the really rich don't typically have income so they don't worry about an income tax. You want to change the laws that allow that --- they'll be on the phone so fast it'll make your head spin.
As to what the FairTax rates would be in a few generations. Who knows. But one thing we WILL know is if it goes up or down. No longer will a politician be able to tell me that he is going to simplify the tax system to make the rich pay their fair share and quietly, through tax code I can't begin to understand, take away another deduction that I had access to. If the rate goes up he is going to have to expain why. Is it because of war, a disaster, or is he out there giving things away again, trying to currey favor?
Great stuff though. And this is the really important part. I read the book and actually understood most of it. I can't say that about any of the IRS publications I dredge through each year.
