"Taxes are the price we pay for civilization" ... Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. The U.S. Tax Code is a perennial whipping boy, and rightly so. It's unfair and monstrously complex.Some would like to replace the entire Tax Code and the IRS with a totally new system. One such idea is the so-called FairTax, which is essentially a national retail sales tax. Although Bruce Bartlett in "FairTax, Flawed Tax" and others have roundly criticized this idea, here are my main reservations about the FairTax:The FairTax treats savers badly. Under the current system, savings have already been taxed. But with the enactment of the FairTax, pre-existing savings will be taxed a second time -- when they're spent. How fair is that?And remember, your pre-existing savings will be taxed that second time NOT by just another dinky sales tax, but by the replacement tax for the largest sources of revenue to the federal government, including the income tax and the payroll tax. So, to replace...(Read Full Article)