A lot of European countries have tax structures biased much more heavily towards "value-added taxes" (VATs), which are, in effect, sales taxes on steroids. (Al

A lot of European countries have tax structures biased much more heavily towards "value-added taxes" (VATs), which are, in effect, sales taxes on steroids. (Also local governments in the US.) One problem, though, is that in practice, sales taxes are generally regressive --- the poor spend a much larger fraction of their income than the rich, and so wind up getting (relatively) more heavily taxed.