I've been thinking about this for a bit - I'm in the middle of the desert, so I have lots of thinking time - and have come to the conclusion that the only fair tax system is one based on consumption. The current system is all about penalizing you for working hard and saving. You should be taxed on what you consume, with the exception of necessary items like raw vegetables, bread, etc - basically food that isn't processed much more than being canned. Stuff like potato chips, cheese whiz, etc would be taxed, but at a lower rate than the national sales tax. I'd even be in favor of doing things like NC does - one weekend a year, everything you buy is tax free to support going back to school. Low income people would feel much less of a pinch, if they planned properly. They would also have an incentive to eat healthier, which would reduce the obesity problem. Congress could stop bitching about not getting taxes from online purchases because everyone would pay the national rate on these items. States would still apply their tax rate on top of the federal one - it'd be the same as we currently have with gasoline. I don't know what the tax rate would be - though I know the government collected $967 billion in income tax last year, I can't find how much we spent buying stuff.