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VAT taxes don't work. We don't want to discourage consumption, we want to encourage it; it's what drives the US economy. It also hits poorer people worse than the rich, since a larger portion of their income would go towards taxes. It would also be hard to make exceptions for the poor since it's hard to eliminate the tax at the register on an person by person basis. The current income tax system handles this by simply not taxing the poorest segment of society.
We have a pretty simple progressive system now for individuals. The monkey wrech is the deductions. The Feds encourage and discourage certain behaviour by taxing it at different rates. This tweaking of the system is what adds the complexity to system, and is also its greatest strength. People tend to gravitate towards the things that make the most financial sense; the government recgnizes that and tries to push the nation in certain directions based upon that fact.
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From the day of his birth Gilgamesh was called by name.
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