Reply #110: What are foreigners buying that isn't taxed?

[AP]

We don't tax the purchase of stock and we're not going to start.

We tax retail sales, and foreigners don't need to buy anything American if they don't want to. Jack up taxes on consumer goods, they'll buy the goods abroad -- where they're manufactured (we make almost nothing in America that you can't get somewhere else).

The rich pay almost 1/3rd of their income in tax. Say they spend half their income (which is a very generous estimate of how much rich people spend). You'd need a 66% sales tax to make up for the lost tax revenue, and that's presuming they spend 100% of their income on items you're willing to tax.

So, you see why the rich would prefer a sales tax? It's because anything less than a 66% sales tax would constitue a tax cut for someone who spends half of their income every year.