What is a consumption tax? It means that everything a person purchases is taxed at between 22% and 23%. But wait! That’s the only tax that anyone ever has to pay – ever. No income taxes, no business taxes, no capital gains taxes – nothing. You name a tax other than a consumption tax and it doesn’t exist. Another thing to keep in mind is that the tax is only assessed once. For example, if you buy a brand new car, you pay the tax. However, if you buy a used car – no tax. The Fair Tax is only assessed once.

The other critical point to remember under the Fair Tax is that each household in America would be reimbursed on a monthly basis for a dollar amount equal to what they would spend on basic goods. This immediately removes the argument that poorer citizens would be facing an undue burden under the Fair Tax. They wouldn’t be facing that burden because the government would provide each American household with a subsidy equal to what they would typically spend each month on consumption taxes for basic necessities.

There is obviously too much to go into in this small space. However, if you are interested in government reform or new ways for America to meet its obligations to its citizens, then I would recommend reading this book. I was completely against a Fair Tax when I first picked up this book, but after reading it I am convinced that it could be a great step forward for America in the new world economy.

But one thing bothers the hell out of me and that’s when credit card companies try to hoodwink students into signing up for their product. Sure, this falls into the parameters of learning about the rules of the game, but it’s cheap. The New York Times covered this last Friday in an article entitled, “Colleges Profit as Banks Market Credit Cards to Students.”

If you clicked over to see the article, then I’m sure you noticed the Bank of America table set up at Michigan State University. Anyone who has been to college has seen a similar setup on their campuses – you have a perky representative behind the table enticing students who are walking by to sign-up for their credit card and in return you get a free t-shirt, a gigantic discount at the bookstore, or some other not-really-needed benefit. When I was in college I once signed up for a credit card because they were giving away free t-shirts…which were two sizes too small for me to wear.

Hundreds of colleges have contracts with lenders. But at a time of rising concern about student debt — and overall consumer debt — the arrangements have sounded alarm bells, and some student groups are starting to push back.

The relationships are reminiscent of those uncovered two years ago between student loan companies and universities. In those, some lenders offered universities an incentive to steer potential borrowers their way.

Here at Michigan State, the editors of the student newspaper wrote this fall that “it doesn’t take a giant leap for someone to ask why the university should encourage responsible spending when it receives a cut of every purchase.”

Good for the student newspaper at Michigan State! Keep probing the issue and asking those questions. For example, if Michigan State has this credit card arrangement with Bank of America whereby it profits when students use credit cards (responsibly or not), then with which organization does the university have a contract to teach students how to use credit responsibly? And what are the metrics for either program? In other words, how much has the university generated from its Bank of America relationship versus how much it has spent on teaching its students how to be responsible economic citizens? I’m sure that with Michigan State being a public university that the students can do some digging and find some of this information. The Times article gives this information:

Michigan State University gets $1.2 million a year but is guaranteed at least $8.4 million over seven years, according to its agreement. The contract calls for a $1 royalty to the university for every new card account that remains open for at least 90 days, $3 for every card whose holder pays an annual fee, and a payment of a half percent of the amount of all retail purchases using the cards.

My guess is that the university has no formal relationship to spend any of those millions of dollars on financial education for its students. What a shame? This stuff bothers me because no matter how level-headed you think a college student might be, there is a greater likelihood of them getting into severe credit card debt because of programs like the one above. When I was in college I rang up some $13,000 in credit card debt before I had to have my Mother bail me out (thanks, Mom ). It was a costly learning experience for me – though I must admit that I’m much better off financially now then I’ve ever been and it is due, in part, to having racked up such a ridiculous credit card debt while in college.

Oh, and how many times can I quote stories from the New York Times? Geez! For their part, the Times has a series called “The Debt Trap” where they look at the relationship between increased consumer spending and the lenders providing the dollars for that relationship. It’s interesting – go take a look!

What does this mean for the automakers? Less inventory moving off of lots and less sales of new and used cars – both of which mean less revenue. As a consumer who is off-again, on-again in the market for a new or newly used car I can tell you that it’s just not worth buying a new car right now (so long as you have other means of conveyance). I spent last month looking around used car dealer lots and I didn’t find one deal. Not ONE decent deal! Sure, I understand that the people who work at these places need to pay the bills and eat, but you would think that in a tough economic time when an entire industry to collapsing there would be some ingenuity at the local or regional levels to cut prices and sell product.

I guess not.

In fact, the price disparities between the new and used cars weren’t even that far apart. In other words, I might as well have purchased a brand new car because I’d only be spending a few thousand more for it and I’d be getting a brand new machine with top of the line features. Oh, that reminds me – the feature packages are too expensive on new cars. Consumers know that you can get a great sound system installed in a car for a few hundred bucks (I said great sound system – not the type of system where you can take your car to a show a win awards). So when you see automakers adding $800 – $1,200 for such an upgrade, why would you purchase that upgrade? Add up a bunch of those large-scale “nickel and dime” pieces and you find yourself wondering why you’d buy a car from that dealer in the first place.

Now add all of this to the fact that American automakers have a reputation for shoddy workmanship while comparatively priced foreign cars have a reputation for lasting forever and American consumers have an easy choice to make. In this case, consumers aren’t even making a proactive choice to buy one car or another – they’re just not going out to purchase new vehicles period. But when they do one has to wonder how long they will continue to buy an overpriced, inferior, and out of date product.