its better than the current system but tell me what is wrong with a regressive tax per se? The price of food, cars, tv's movie tickets, condoms, ping pong balls-in fact everything but government services is regressive.
For one, it will actually hurt the economy. Businesses thrive on consumer spending. If the poor and middle class have to spend their money on a regressive tax, they won't have enough to spend on more consumer goods. And the wealthy
do not consume enough to make up for it.
It would also not bring in enough revenue to pay for all of our government-provided infrastructure. While you always focus on welfare, there is also defense spending, law enforcement, disaster response, transportation infrastructure, public education and regulatory agencies. All those programs require funding. Which is why a national flat tax won't bring in enough revenue, as the U.S. covers a third of a continent and it's costly to maintain social order for a landmass that size.
To give an example, if we used a national flat tax, most people only purchase a very few of a particular good. For example, most people only have one bed or two or three TVs at most and one computer. While the wealthy may have the
ability to purchase more goods, and probably do (for example, a wealthy person has 3 houses, so they buy 2 beds for each, 3 TVs for each, and 1 computer for each house) their level of consumption is not high enough to make up for what would be lost if we moved to a national flat sales tax.
And while there are a larger number of poor and middle class people than there are of wealth, and so a larger number of poor and middle class consumers than wealthy consumers, the poor and middle class
do not have the income available to purchase
enough consumer goods to make up for what would be lost if we moved to a national flat sales tax.
So to move to a national flat sales tax would cripple our government and the services they provides. And like I said before, that's not just
welfare programs, such as food stamps, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, disability, and unemployment; it also includes
federal law enforcement, such as the FBI, ATF, and DEA,
defense spending, such as defense contracts for military equipment that grants our servicemen the advantage of force multipliers to be much deadlier than their opponents,
disaster response, such FEMA to respond to unexpected natural disasters and federal programs to support local emergency responders, such as police departments, fire departments, and paramedics,
transportation infrastructure, such as our federal highway system built for fast military transport but used everyday for civilian movement and flow of commerce but also includes our waterways for shipping,
public education, which everyone refers to as our public elementary and high schools but also includes universities and colleges that businesses hire their skilled and educated employees from, and
regulatory agencies, such as the SEC to ensure ethical stock practices, the FDA to ensure the people buy safe foods and drinks, and the EPA to enforce environmental laws to prevent industrial waste from poisoning American citizens.
A national flat sales tax won't cover the expenses for all those federal programs and duties. And those federal programs and duties are what has allowed our nation to build itself up as a world power and sustain it.