Free trade is orthogonal to this goal. For my entire life, the right-wing/libertarian tax proposal has been for the 'flat tax' or 'fair tax', which basically me

Free trade is orthogonal to this goal. For my entire life, the right-wing/libertarian tax proposal has been for the 'flat tax' or 'fair tax', which basically means an across-the-board high sales tax funds the government. This is of course a regressive tax, since the upper echelon classes only spend a small fraction of their incomes, while the lower classes generally spend at least 100% of theirs. Don't believe that once a high consumption tax has been enacted to replace income taxes, and once trade disputes are settled, that conservatives would ever allow the return of a progressive income tax.