The 20% national sales tax in lieu of income tax plan is being floated around in the media to see how people will respond. It seems like such a flawed plan, but one that I might personally be able to benefit from. A national sales tax would be a boon for the black market and a death knell for several established markets. Ebay and other internet commerce would see the most immediate effects, suddenly there would be no real advantage to ordering online--except for the true hermits and handicapped. Bartering would become commonplace--there's no effective way to tax this. I would also expect to see an influx of foreign currency into our everyday usage. Ready to figure out Euro denominations everyone?
Obviously there will still be tax shelters for the wealthy, but also there are people-like myself-who would altogether disappear from the tax rolls. I'm fairly certain that I could live off-the-books, could you?
What a lot of people, especially conservatives who are deathly afraid of the t-a-x word (shhhhh!), dont realize is that when the Republican congress and president decide to
raise the national debt ceiling they are in effect raising taxes. National debt is directly tied to inflation, so the money we earn is now officially worth less, thank you Republicans!