[peterfirefly]

There's actually a really good argument in favour of that -- and in favour of paying income tax not as a direct tax (withheld from wages) but with a delay.

It makes the taxes visible and painful and they will therefore (potentially) not rise as fast or as much.

[snotrockets]

It also puts more tax burden on the less wealthy. Sales tax is regressive; income tax is progressive.

But yes, that’s exactly why the American right makes taxation so cumbersome and horrible: to make people think that taxes are bad, as there’s this assumption you can have civilization without paying for it.

[milesskorpen]

I think that's an argument, but not necessarily a good one

Need to balance transparency in pricing vs. visibility of taxes. I don't think sales taxes are actually all that visible most of the time- it's not like the cashier is telling you "and your taxes are $X." But it does make it much harder to detect if the store is charging you more than list price.