A Fair Tax?

I read this column in the New York Times, and I thought a bit. I like Mike Huckabee; he seems like a pretty darn nice guy. But would his tax ideas work? It doesn't seem to make sense, that the FairTax would be taking the tax burden off of those who are able to support it and who don't need to spend such a large percentage of their money to live, and putting it on the people least able to support it. Their math also seems a little weird, too. The article quotes one of the major sponsors of the FairTax saying, "Liberals should love it: it lowers taxes on wages and imposes a tax on wealth." Let me spell out the likely reason why liberals don't seem to be too impressed. The great majority of American people live from paycheck to paycheck, spending most of what they take in each month, whereas people who get more money don't have so much of a problem with that. If they cut back on some luxury expenditures, rich people could get a hell of a lot better off on this. A single man taking in $1,000,000 a year, with no mortgage, 50% investment rate, and good personal habits spend about a percentage point extra, and receive a boost to actual usable income of about 300%. Whereas a 3-person family earning $40,000 per year, with no mortgage, no investment, fairly low charitable-giving and gift-giving rates, public school education for the tyke, and an overall low profile results in an increase in taxes paid, decrease in purchasing power, and a decrease in spendable income. That's very interesting, isn't it. The "progressive" tax would hurt the people who can afford it the least, and help the people who don't need the help.

P.S. This was done practically on a whim, so any FairTax supporters who think I did my research wrong should keep in mind that this was very rushed. I want to do a more detailed look into it, but time has not permitted.