>I'd kind of dismissed the idea of a consumption/sales tax as terribly regressive, but it doesn't have to be, and lately I've been wondering what the distribution might look like.

In California the sales tax doesn't apply to clothing under a certain price or food staples. Since poor people spend a high percentage of their money on these things it's not a big burden for them.

If they want to buy booze or a big screen TV they can pay sales tax like the rest of us.