You are a wise man, Brian Phillips. Keeping the wife happy is at the top of my list.
BTW, there is quite a bit of data on charity, giving, philanthropy, and other proxies for empathy which show that this is hardly a providence of the left. The recent book by Alan Greenspan, "The Age of Turbulance", offers some excellent insights on the subject matter (Fabian socialism vs. capitalism, their benefits and costs, and their relative impact on societies). For the most part, with the exception of the discussion of macroeconomic current account/balance of trade issues, he writes in fairly plain English and not the Fedspeak he was known for during his long run as Fed chaiman.
BTW2, with all types of taxes and fees we pay here, I suspect we're pretty close to the 40% - 50% figure. I am curious, do you know what is Norway's defense budget as a % of GDP? I suspect it is a bit below the 4%+ figure for the U.S., though I could be off.