To complicate the matter further, five states have no sales tax. They're referred to as the NOMAD states: New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, Delaware. So, any resident of those states who buys within their own state avoids sales tax (but pays other taxes to compensate.)

For you to fully understand this system, you would have to understand the relationship between the sovereignty of the states vs. the power of the federal government. And that is tied to a long, involved history (of which the Civil War was a big part.) It is not as neat and tidy as you like because it is part of a product of ongoing evolution, not "created from whole cloth" in some "rational" fashion.

To then denigrate this system, either from lack of understanding of the history, or from just plain disliking it, can lead to friction. Lots of different feelings and opinions around the matter, rooted in all that history. How the average US citizen sees the relationship between their state and the federal government is a charged political issue.

In other words, this is going in a dangerous direction, threatening to turn political. Unless your intention is to deliberately provoke such, it would be best to discontinue going further. I appreciate, and even understand, your views, which you're entitled to. Just know that--as sensible as they seem to you--they're not universal, and there are alternate viewpoints. And none of them really belong on a model discussion board.

So, pardon me please, but I quit right here. Great discourse with you, as always.