Consumption Tax

So what, exactly, is a consumption tax?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumption_tax
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/ConsumptionTax.html

You can find reasonably easy-to-understand explanations at the above links. But basically a consumption tax taxes what you spend rather than what you earn. Why would that be an advantage to us in Vermont? Well, the easy and most obvious answer is that people don't currently pay taxes on unreported income. So drug dealers, gamblers, prostitutes etc rarely pay income taxes. They would, and do, pay consumption taxes.  Business owners would no longer have to be tax collection agents for the state and get on with growing their business. Finally, workers would get to keep all of their income and decide how much tax they are willing to pay.
There has been a bill before congress, known as the Fair Tax, for years now. Of course the sitting government is so dysfunctional that they can't even consider it. But as voters you should at least know it exists and understand how it would benefit workers and businesses in Vermont. If you are a small business owner, consider what it would be like for you to be able to ignore the income tax hoops that you must currently leap through every pay period. If you are an employee, imagine getting ALL of your earnings and then being able to decide what NEW items you are willing to purchase and pay taxes on.

A link to the federal bill can be found here.

Of course this is something that would have to be developed in cooperation with the legislature and at the pleasure of the citizens, but I believe that Vermont could be in a much better fiscal position if we start implementing ways for workers and businesses alike to increase buying power and choices.

Thoughts?