[The Dude]

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So once you have determined it is revenue neutral, now you need to ask yourself, what is the current breakdown of % of revenue paid into the system by each quadrant of taxpayers? What % of tax revenue do the top 20% of earners pay? What do the bottom 20% currently pay?

Now the million dollar question, how do those percentages change with this new system? Again, I have not read the book, but my understanding of any flat/fair tax scheme is that they are designed to allow rich people to pay less in taxes. If we have revenue neutrality, then if someone is paying less, then someone else must be paying more.

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The FairTax system is not designed to make it easier for rich people to pay less in taxes. It's designed to give everybody more control over what they pay in taxes, and encourage behavior that is good for our economy in the meantime. (Not to mention cut out hundreds of billions in economic waste, which is completely independant of the amount being taxed.)

A rich family that wants to live very modestly will pay very little in tax. If they save the rest of their money or give it to charity then they don't pay any taxes on that. But if they want to consume a lot, or buy luxury items, they'll pay a ton of tax - often more than they are under the current system. And the same goes for middle- or lower-class families. If they spend all of their money on consumption items, they will pay more in tax (including things they went into debt for, and didn't actually earn the money to pay for this year). But if they choose to save their money, give it to charity, spend it on education, or pay down their debt, they can do so without being burdened by the tax on these things.

There is more to taxes than simply how much you collect, and where it comes from. Different taxation methods have different effects on how people spend money, thus affecting the economy - either in a positive way or a negative way. There is also the issue of cost of collection. It is HUGE under our current system, about $250 billion if I remember correctly. I believe FairTax proponents say their system will reduce that by 90%.

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This is the inherient flaw in flat tax schemes. You presumably have done nothing to change the percentage of money that the poor need to spend on essentials yet you are now asking them to pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes.

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Again, you're missing some key components:
1. Cost of compliance.
2. Economic effects of the taxation method.
3. Giving individuals more choices on how much they pay, depending on how they spend, not how they earn.