Sunday, March 13, 2011

Defending the Fair Tax

As readers of EconoBlast know, I support the Fair Tax.  In recent weeks, some anonymous crank has sent tens of comments to EconoBlast that lambaste both the Fair Tax and me (one presumes the anonymity is based on cowardice).  I have not published the comments, because they are lambastes, not arguments based on reason or evidence.

The issue this anonymous critic appears obsessed with is that the Fair Tax calls for state and local governments to pay the national sales tax on purchases they make.  The cowardly anonymous critic rants and raves on and on about how requiring state and local governments to pay a national sales tax would be unfair, undesirable, and politically unacceptable.

As it happens, other professional economists have already written extensively about this topic.  Consequently, I offer their work here, instead of attempting to repeat it.  I warn readers that the article I link to in the preceding sentence is not for the mathematically dim.

The only reason I am posting this to EconoBlast is because I have tired of the rants and raves of the aforementioned anonymous critic.  To that critic I offer the following thought: don't bother sending additional comments to EconoBlast, for they will not be published.  Read the linked article, if you are able to understand it, and move on.

For readers of EconoBlast who have no interest in the Fair Tax and this petty critic, I apologize.  No more will be made of it.

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