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At least with a National Retail Sales Tax, it's a wash with corporate income taxes that are embedded into the retail price that you pay at the register. The major differences would be that while prices at the POS stay the same, you're buying it with your entire paycheck. Additionally, EVERYONE would be paying into the Treasury. Citizens, illegals, black market economy, foreign tourists. Everyone.

Fair enough. And I ultimately agree with you that the Founders did not envision the federal income tax--because they did not envision a need for it. Sadly the States let it happen.

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My gripe with the 17th Amendment is that it subverts the Founders' intent to empower the states themselves with representation in Washington. The House does the business of the people. The Senate presents the interest of the states. Together they have to find common ground.

Popular election of Senators destroyed that balance.

Definitely agree here. I am personally a fan of how Germany's legislative branch is set up. The lower house (Bundestag) is elected via mixed-member proportional representation. The way they allocate is complicated, but ultimately 299 members are elected via single member constituencies using first-past-the-post, and the remaining 400 or so are elected via party lists based on the proportional results of each party in each state. Scotland has a similar system.

The upper house (Bundesrat) directly represents the government of the federal states.

This allows for federal representation, while also allowing minority parties to obtain seats in the government they otherwise would never have in a pure single member constituency election. (think Republicans in California, or Democrats in places like OK)

ETA: this pic gives a visual of how it worked in their most recent election back in 2017: