While a 'progressive' tax system sounds like an enlightened thing it is ultimately a way to give someone power to manage outcomes.

The power enable tax policy to choose winners and even punish political opponents with disruptive audits, as we've seen this very election cycle is the great evil of this system.

While it sounds like the poor people get ripped off here, the rich people actually have less power in a national sales tax. With a complex administrative tax regime, wealthy people can afford to find and arrange their assets to avoid the taxes. Poor people cannot, even if the tax code is structured to be kinder to them, they don't have the means to work that system, when they don't have the resources or expertise to do so.

A national sales tax would be difficult to game, if done correctly, and placed on all goods, not just retail goods, but also homes and other investments and high frequency trading, etc.

If it was truly universal, it would give rich people no real options. Pay the tax or don't buy assets/don't cash out gains. There's no way to trick a system that's that simple and universal.

There will be some people who are not immediately better off. We should consider all time ahead of us, and not specific individuals alive today. Of course, I don't have to get elected, so....