I agree, Herb that eliminating income tax in favor of a sales tax on all goods would be skewed against the lower and middle classes. Particularly with the widening of the income gap and the ever-rapid disappearance of the middle and upper-middle class, a full national sales tax would only further hasten our movement towards a two-class, proletariat/bourgoisie society. Under such conditions, popular opinion would inevitably tend towards the turmoil of revolution and/or communism - and we all know how that generally works out.

Although I don't know how Cass identifies herself politically, it's not my understanding from her comments that she's progressive. Even if she is, it seems awfully silly to suggest that a REGRESSIVE tax is a PROGRESSIVE idea. The very few individuals and groups that I've heard of advocating a national sales tax are on the opposite side of the political spectrum, although I'm not aware of any specific ideology or even a cohesive political party that endorses the idea.

I also think your judgment is being clouded somewhat by your political leanings in regards to net neutrality. While it is elected members of the government that are proposing the laws/policies that violate net neutrality, what we're witnessing (and this is illustrated in some of the links Cass has posted) is not that control of the internet is being monopolized by the government. It's far worse than that. What we're seeing is elements of the government granting private corporations control of the internet, and thus our freedom. Right now, this is going on at a relatively small scale. As Cass has pointed out, however, the takeover of our freedom on the internet - whether it's our anonymity or ability to browse content - will degrade rapidly once we start down this path. I'm no big fan of anyone taking control of our freedom to use the internet, but at least we elect the government. Once that control is ceded to private entities who are not subject to checks and balances or public referendum, we will never get that freedom back.

The problem with letting black-and-white, us-vs.-them political notions intrude on this topic is that net neutrality has become an incredibly complex issue, especially in regards to politics. Government officials of all political stripes have proposed changes to law/policy that would infringe on our freedom to use the internet, and within each political ideology there's a great deal of confusion and dissent on how to tackle the topic.

For instance, while standard conservative ideology dictates that government control (in this case, the FCC) should be strictly limited in favor of individual freedom, it also conversely holds that private businesses (who indeed own and operate most of the software and hardware controlling what we access online) should act with the least possible government regulation to maximize profits.

Net neutrality presents an ideological conundrum to many political ideologies - and certainly to the Democratic and Republican parties. Relying on traditional political branding and bravado won't solve this problem. Net neutrality, perhaps more than any other issue in recent years, highlights the pathetically broken nature of our partisan politics and its inability to cope with complex real-world situations.