Ari,

Yes. Perhaps I should have been clearer, but that's what I was trying to get at.

When I originally heard about the flat sales tax on everyone (several years ago), I also thought that it sounded like a fair idea. It seemed like a very sensible way of doing things, up front, so like Gary, who wrote the original comment, I thought it sounded promising.

But the way it looks "up front" is not the way that it would play out in the real world. A 30% sales tax only looks equitable, because it's one of those nice easy rules that you can look at and think "hey! This applies to everyone equally!". In reality, when you consider the spending patterns of the rich and the poor, it is clear that a uniform sales tax would make the inequity worse.

That's why I ended with the final point that I made -- some things that look like equitable rules up front have horribly damaging effects on the back end.