Spending in America Today

There is an excellent article on the Cato Institute's website from a few days ago titled You Are What You Spend that speaks to the more detailed factors of "spending inequalities" in America today. Included in this article is a visually unappealing, but accurate and equally interesting chart depicting the differences in spending between the lowest, middle, and highest fifths of American households by earnings in 2006. Notable in the chart is the fact that spending on health care in 2006 between the three different groups was not significant compared to other categories such as taxes, transportation, and housing. In particular, the distribution of spending for the middle and highest fifths were skewed higher in these three categories, with the highest fifth bearing an incredible burden in the amount of taxes paid in 2006. Do we really need further economic sanctions against the rich in the form of ever higher taxes?