I'll keep this brief. As clearly proven by the Gawker Bain tax information release, the rich have written laws to avoid paying taxes. Not so much for the poor and middle class.
Commerce has pretty much been taken over by chain stores and restaurants, killing off most of the REAL AMERICAN MOM AND POP SMALL BUSINESSES.
And, we all know how the big box stores get to move into towns and get real estate, etc., tax exempt status. It's the towns little way of enticing them, as if demographics weren't enough.
So the UBER RICH OWNERS and SHAREHOLDERS get the profits without having to pay the local yocals a dime....ever! Ok, some will donate a pittance here and there for some local occasion. How generous of them....yawn.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Joe Six Pack, the Plumber, and/or the Cowboy gets to pay real estate taxes and taxes on every item he is forced to purchase in order to survive.
Heck, he pays taxes on all his utilities, his phones, his gas, his.....well everything. Joe Whatever can't hop into his private jet to shop elsewhere like Mitt Romney and his friends do
I would imagine the UBER RICH make sure they purchase as much as they can from the 5 States with no sales taxes:
Alaska
Montana
Delaware
New Hampshire
Oregon
Actually, the poorest pay the most taxes as a percent of income.
One of the most mean-spirited taxes is food tax. Republican states love to tax food.
Leading the meanness, to no one's surprise are Alabama and Mississippi. Not surprisingly, mostly GOP states tax food because, heaven forbid, they tax corporations and the rich.
Two states continue to apply their sales tax fully to food purchased for home consumption without providing any offsetting relief for low- and moderate-income families. They are Alabama and Mississippi.
Five states — Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota— tax groceries fully but offer credits or rebates offsetting some of the taxes paid on food by some portions of the population. These credits or rebates usually are set at a flat amount per family member. The amounts and eligibility rules vary, but may be too narrow and/or insufficient to give eligible households full relief from sales taxes paid on food purchases.
Seven states tax groceries at lower rates than other goods; they are Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia. [1]
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia exempt most food purchased for consumption at home from the state sales tax. South Carolina is the state that most recently eliminated its sales tax on food (effective November 1, 2007).
America is not a humane country in general, but 31 states have enough heart and class to NOT tax food for crying out loud.