Book Review by Roger Lott on Replacing income tax with sales tax

Roger's review starts of this way:

James Madison once said, "It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." The great Founding Father's words aptly describe the problem we have today with an arcane 67,500-page federal income tax code.

We need a simplified tax system that treats everyone by the same basic set of rules. Ken Hoagland, national communications director for Americans for Fair Taxation, may have the answer in "The FairTax Solution." The idea is simple: Replace all federal income taxes, including those on investments and capital gains, with a flat consumption tax on new goods and services.

Most of us dread April 15, but Mr. Hoag- land says that if the FairTax is enacted, it'll be just any other spring day. No more saving receipts all year, only to find that you need to scramble to find missing ones. No more lousy 1040s or W-2s. Instead, when you purchase a new good or a service, 23 percent of its price will go to the federal government. . . .