I think it's important to know where we've come from... most people I know have never read the documents that form the basis for our civilization. So my task is to re-read the founding documents of America...
The Declaration of Independence
The United States Constitution
The Bill of Rights
Once finished there are countless more items to be read including the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, any thing written by Abraham Lincoln and important bills and court decisions. Reading material does not have to be old, however, to be enlightening. For a more modern article, I suggest reading the FairTax bill, currently before the House. It isn't long (133 pages, compared to the 60,000+ pages of tax code it will replace if passed) by nearly any standard. I've read the bill, along with papers and arguments for and against the bill (See the FairTax link on the sidebar) and I believe it to be a giant step toward the economic and political growth that America needs. The economic benefit for all Americans is clear, and has been accepted as 'common knowledge' by economists. The political benefit is a transfer of power from Washington bureaucrats to the American citizenry by placing the amount of taxation on every retail sales reciept. Currently, it is impossible to know how much you've paid in taxes. Even if you know your tax bracket you can not know the amount of embedded tax, the tax that companies pass on to you when you buy thier products, and so the government can raise taxes without you ever knowing. You will still pay more (via the embedded tax) even if taxes are only raised on 'the rich.' By making the tax visible to everyone, and easy to understand, when the government hikes the tax rate on us, we'll know, and we can let our representatives know. If our representatives will not address our tax burdens, we will replace them. I could be wrong, of course, but I'd like to find out...