The middle class and the lower-middle class have been victims for years in our economy and tax-paying obligations.

The solution, contrary to Abraham Lincoln's income tax, is a consumption tax as opposed to a production tax.

Similar to a "state tax" on your purchases, the federal government should eliminate income taxes and should establish a flat rate tax on your (and other country's)  purchases, or consumption of goods purchased in the U.S.

This has several advantages, among them,

1)  The elimination of tax breaks, deductions and loopholes.

2)  The complete simplification of the current tax codes that would save us billions of dollars a year on the IRS, not to mention the time for the American worker to figure out his taxes.

3)  The software implementation is already in place in every single cash register in the US that collects sales tax via state and local sales taxes.

4)  Most important of all, the person consuming more pays more and the person consuming less pays less.

My point is that if a person can afford to buy a Lear Jet he should pay the equivalent percentage of taxes on that purchase as a person buying a pair of work boots.

The current tax system is not only extremely confusing and unfair, it encourages consumption and discourages production (and savings...note that we are one of the lowest of the industrialized nations in this regard).

When a millionaire pays less taxes than a middle class worker, something is wrong.  If the millionaire and the money launderer were to be forced to pay their taxes at the cash register, it would eliminate loopholes, deductions and "laundering".

Am I the only one who sees this?