Please don't misunderstand me: I am not suggesting that sales tax OR the Fair Tax are without merits. I just would like to hear how sales-tax proponents adress the mother of them all --- the fact that poor people pay more of sales tax (in proportion) than wealthy ones. Aside from fairness, it is also a practical question: how can you expect to persuade people if you don't address their main concern?
By either exempting the first $X of purchases (the way the FairTax does) or exempting certain purchase from a national sales tax, you do prevent the poor from paying tax. Of course, most of us define a poor person as someone who, if he can buy anything, can afford only the most basic of essentials. Far from harming such people, both my proposal and the FairTax would help these people because there would be no federal tax withheld from such persons' paychecks.
Under either proposal though, anyone who would make a purchase that would result in paying either a national retail sales tax, or the amount of sales tax charged under the FairTax beyond the level of prebate, isn't poor.