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What are some arguments against chaneling all forms of taxes into sales tax? To me that seems the simplest way to ensure everyone is contributing, regardles of how or where the money is made.

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The primary argument against consumption taxes is that they're regressive on a percentage-of-income basis, as your spending as a percentage of total income tends to drop as your income increases (it's worth noting, though, that payroll taxes are already functionally regressive, as the percentage of income from non-payroll sources rises with total income). The other is that you generally tax things you want to disincentivize, and since aggregate demand is the primary driver of economic growth, you want to be careful to not dent it too badly. You could make it progressive by refunding a baseline amount annually, but people have to effectively carry the outlay until tax time.

The primary argument for them is that the wealthy have a higher marginal propensity to consume, so it acts as a functional wealth tax, and can't be easily evaded through income restructuring. It would be strictly progressive on an absolute basis, and may marginally incentivize investment over consumption.

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