I'll disect some of the other points, but to the point of capital gains, I can only point out the facts that higher capital gains hurt much of middle America and retirees (because they are vested in mutual funds, stocks, etc. in their 401Ks or IRAs or like instruments). Do wealthier people (like Warren Buffet) pay lower taxes due to capital gains being their primary source of income and not a salary, etc.), yes at this time. However, with a flat tax (and little or no exemptions) you would not have the two tiered structure, so, in our case Warren, would pay the same percentage as me (just a hard working corporate guy). There would be NO loopholes, special write-offs, etc. The only "write-off" in a flat tax system is for capital investment items like factory setups, machinery, and the like for businesses. However, in some years, they may pay no taxes due to say putting in a new assembly line for transmissions for cars, but the next year, they don't get that special deduction - so they pay more. This way everybody pays the same percentage and there is no favoritism. Of course, we would have to ammend the 16th Ammendment, but his is the prescribed process of change. The "Fair Tax" as I understand it, would help capture more of the "black market" stuff that gets bought and sold with cash from drug dealers, etc., but I need to make the effort to become more adroit on this tax system. Our currrent tax system is highly disfunctional, and has been used for political favoritism by both parties for years! Let's stop that one and make it simple. By the way, the flat tax system would still allow the accounting industry to employ a lot of people albeit not as many as the current system and its 65,000+ page tax code. Even with a flat tax, we could still exempt the very poor and disabled (like the people without legs we all see in any given metropolitan downtown area). We'll chat on other issues too - enjoy the dialogue.