I’m strangely fascinated with Derek Thompson’s spending charts.  Derek explains that Americans spend most of their money on housing. Transportation comes next. Then food. This spending pattern is mostly consistent among rich and poor in the US.

People in other nations have different spending priorities. The US spends way more on housing and transportation than Canadians, the British, and the Japanese.

What’s up with that? Are Americans horrible suburbanites who love their big screen TVs  and gas guzzling SUVs with cup holders? Oh probably. But Americans are also stuck with a decentralized education system that doesn’t exist in Canada, Britain, and Japan. People spend more on housing in order to get access to better schools. It is impossible to separate housing costs and schooling costs.

Derek thinks that perhaps this trend will fade.

Imagine what would happen if we didn’t spend $1 in $2 on houses and cars. It would be rocky for the real estate and auto industries who have come to rely on a steady stream of spending. But it would leave a lot of money left over other stuff—like smartphones, and dinners out with friends, and shoes whose fanciness belies our income level. This isn’t a vision of the future. It’s a description of the way a lot of young people live today, particularly educated twentysomethings who’ve moved to urban light areas (e.g.: newer suburbs within commuting distance of the city proper, like Arlington, Va.) where they can save on real estate, take public transit, and preserve enough of their lowish salaries to cobble together a connected and fairly social life outside work, if they have it.

And then those 20-somethings will get married, have kids, and move to the suburbs, just like the rest of us idiots, because they will freak out about the bad schools in urban areas.

Want to change spending patterns? Change our system of education.