Hearing Landsburg claim to be an economist is like watching a wild eyed guy with a bloody knife claim to be a surgeon. Either Landsburg is a very ignorant economist or he's a deceitful partisan hack.

One oft mentioned issue: the upper class doesn't spend 100% of their income; they'll have a much lower income to tax rate than they have now. If total revenue is to remain the same, the middle class will get stuck with a huge tax increase.

Next, economies are not based upon savings and investments, they're based upon production and consumption. Increase the price of everything by 30% and people will be less likely to spend. Decrease spending and revenues will drag the stock market into a steep dive.

Now what about home sales? You won't be just adding 30% to the sale price of the home, you'll be adding ~60% to the amount of the mortgage, further fleecing the middle class. Not only will you loose money off the sale price when selling your home, you'll lose another 30% when you buy another, drastically reducing the number of home sales and totally gutting the housing market.

Consider also the trade deficit and the value of the dollar. Unless you're willing to exempt foreigners and exports from the sales tax, the 30% tax essentially becomes a gigantic reverse tariff which causes US citizens to buy more oversea goods while stifling overseas purchasing of US goods. I'd expect the value of the dollar to fall ~30% almost immediately, totally negating any additional income.

Finally, remember that Wall Street hates uncertainty. Dumping our current imperfect system for this monstrosity would cause the market to panic. Expect stocks to drop on any news that a "fair" tax candidate is even remotely likely to be elected.

Real wages are 10.3 percent, 9.5 percent, and 9.2 percent higher in years 1, 10, and 25, respectively than would otherwise be the case.

Consumption benefits:

• Disposable personal income is higher than if the current tax system remains in place: 1.7 percent in year 1, 8.7 percent in year 5, and 11.8 percent in year 10.

• Consumption increases by 2.4 percent more in the first year, which grows to 11.7 percent more by the tenth year than it would be if the current system were to remain in place.

• The increase in consumption is fueled by the 1.7 percent increase in disposable (after-tax) personal income that accompanies the rise in incomes from capital and labor once the FairTax is enacted.

• By the 10th year, consumption increases by 11.7 percent over what it would be if the current tax system remained in place, and disposable income is up by 11.8 percent.

Over time, the FairTax benefits all income groups. Of 42 household types (classified by income, marital status, age), all have lower average remaining lifetime tax rates under the FairTax than they would experience under the current tax system.

Implementing the FairTax at a 23 percent rate gives the poorest members of the generation born in 1990 a 13.5 percent improvement in economic well-being; their middle class and rich contemporaries experience a 5 percent and 2 percent improvement, respectively.

Based on standard measures of tax burden, the FairTax is more progressive than the individual income tax, payroll tax, and the corporate income tax.

The FairTax provides the equivalent of a supercharged mortgage interest deduction, reducing the true cost of buying a home by 19 percent.

With regard to current trade inequities, the FairTax corrects tax policies that put our exports at a substantive disadvantage. (Of course, it also doesn't help that the Fed is printing money like water!) While Wall Street hates uncertainty, that's what they have right now! My conclusion about the stock market is exactly opposite, pass FairTax, and it starts to soar.

The fair tax also causes bread to taste like caviar and will improve your sex life 79%. I know for some of you that's still zero.

Using a sufficiently naive model, it's possible to generate all sorts of numbers. As long as you ignore all mechanisms that negatively impact the result, you're sure to get the results you want.

Even the study you cite acknowledges a significant drop in consumption for the first few years as the economy "normalizes" to the new tax code. After this massive depression, the model predicts a drastic increase in the GDP

I'm sorry, those sorts of numbers just don't pass the smell test. Somehow a massive depression is no big deal? Somehow we're going to get double digit growth without rampant inflation?

Another huge issue that this model glosses over is the massive disparity between the wealthy and the poor. The US economy is going amazingly well... on average. However, look at the median numbers and you'll see a vastly different picture.

ih2005:

Real wages are 10.3 percent, 9.5 percent, and 9.2 percent higher in years 1, 10, and 25, respectively than would otherwise be the case.

Consumption benefits:

• Disposable personal income is higher than if the current tax system remains in place: 1.7 percent in year 1, 8.7 percent in year 5, and 11.8 percent in year 10.

• Consumption increases by 2.4 percent more in the first year, which grows to 11.7 percent more by the tenth year than it would be if the current system were to remain in place.

• The increase in consumption is fueled by the 1.7 percent increase in disposable (after-tax) personal income that accompanies the rise in incomes from capital and labor once the FairTax is enacted.

• By the 10th year, consumption increases by 11.7 percent over what it would be if the current tax system remained in place, and disposable income is up by 11.8 percent.

Over time, the FairTax benefits all income groups. Of 42 household types (classified by income, marital status, age), all have lower average remaining lifetime tax rates under the FairTax than they would experience under the current tax system.

Implementing the FairTax at a 23 percent rate gives the poorest members of the generation born in 1990 a 13.5 percent improvement in economic well-being; their middle class and rich contemporaries experience a 5 percent and 2 percent improvement, respectively.

Based on standard measures of tax burden, the FairTax is more progressive than the individual income tax, payroll tax, and the corporate income tax.

The FairTax provides the equivalent of a supercharged mortgage interest deduction, reducing the true cost of buying a home by 19 percent.

With regard to current trade inequities, the FairTax corrects tax policies that put our exports at a substantive disadvantage. (Of course, it also doesn't help that the Fed is printing money like water!) While Wall Street hates uncertainty, that's what they have right now! My conclusion about the stock market is exactly opposite, pass FairTax, and it starts to soar.

All of these sources come from Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University. BHI's clients include oil companies, the Heritage Foundation, and the Pacific Research Institute. Basically, you're looking at "research" paid for by corporate interests and right-wing think tanks. None - NONE - of the very real dangers of the so-called "Fair Tax" will be discussed by this source.