Consumption taxes are also regressive in that in the lower your income, the harder those taxes become to pay. I would prefer a tax scheme in which you're ability to pay the tax is proportional to the taxes you owe.

It's not regressive. It's a flat tax, everyone pays the flat rate. Feels like spin when you say regressive.

The reason people call a flat consumption tax regressive is that poorer people, even though they're often buying cheaper things, generally spend a much larger proportion of their income on "consumption."

Consumption taxes are regressive, serving to further exacerbate income inequality.

It's not regressive. It's flat.

Rich people rarely buy stuff in proportion to their greater income (earning 100x more but not buying cars worth 100x more, etc). This would mainly affect the not-so-rich people, who, given fixed purchase budgets, would probably respond by consuming less, which is likely to hurt businesses with lower demand for just about any product.

> This would mainly affect the not-so-rich people, who, given fixed purchase budgets,

Certain items can be excempt from sales tax, such as groceries.

> Likely to hurt businesses

Since when is the HN crowd worried about hurting businesses. Most people here want higher taxes for corporations.