70% of the Wealthiest Counties in America are in the Washington D.C. Area

An article from the Economist magazine explains that:

Last week, the Census Bureau published new county-level income data, which revealed that seven of the nation’s ten richest counties are located in the Washington metropolitan area, a share that has only risen of late.

What is so bizarre about the article though is that the author basically defends this development, albeit with reservations.  He essentially claims that the wealth of D.C. reflects the skilled workforce that has made the area home, and that this is the main reason for the wealth aggregation.  For example the author writes:

But I would advise a little caution in interpreting these figures for one very important reason: clusters of skilled workers are very persistent.

I believe the author is well intentioned; however, the fact that he comes to this conclusion is very disturbing and a reflection of how simplistically many people think about complex societal and economic issues.  For example, many brilliant people with advanced degrees in physics and math started flooding into Wall Street beginning in the 1990’s when the pay started skyrocketing versus the rest of the economy.  Guess what this led to?  Complex derivatives and the ultimate financialization and implosion of the U.S. economy; a condition from which we have yet to recover.

Physicists should stick to physics.  Maybe if they had we would have nuclear fusion by now and have moved into a new paradigm for the species.  Instead they bundled up mortgages and sold them to sleepy pensions in Norway.  So in the case of D.C., how is it not catastrophic for society to have some of the smartest minds engaged in 24/7 bribery in the capitol.  Or for those that aren’t simply bribing, figuring out more effective ways to install the surveillance state on the rest of us.  This is not good.

One word: Parasites.

Full Economist article here.

In Liberty,
Mike

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10 thoughts on “70% of the Wealthiest Counties in America are in the Washington D.C. Area”

  1. Given the bloated and overpaid congressional people and their numerous staff people and let’s not even count the executive branch, hardly news

    Reply
  2. Mike, you have missed the boat here. Skilled laborers like PHP Developers and Doctors earn big salaries because they have earned a skill other people are willing to pay for. Saying stuff like “some of the smartest minds engaged in 24/7 bribery in the capitol” means you have no idea what a skill actually is. DC is a Mecca for IT companies like Microsoft and Google. So you honestly think their employees are engaged in 24/7 bribery and that’s why they have so much money?

    You are sounding like a jealous person now.

    Reply
    • You are entitled to your opinion as I am to mine. If you think the Capitol region, which is unquestionably corrupt beyond belief being the center of wealth is healthy, so be it. But understand one thing and understand it clearly. I have nothing to be jealous about in this world. Nothing. So who need to get their facts straight?

    • So, am I supposed to believe that DC has rich counties because of PHP developers and doctors? Ridiculous… As if Silicon Valley, Austin, Seattle, etc don’t have those?

      Let’s not be fools. We can see the federal budget, we know why the DC area is booming: It’s because the clowns in charge are spending other people’s money like drunken sailors, especially on surveillance agencies.

      A Mecca of IT? More like a Mecca of bureaucrats. I’ve known too many govt. employees who went to night school to get an MA in education so they could get their automatic raise. That does not make them smarter than the rest of us. IT just means they CLAIM to be smarter than the rest of us.

      If anyone thinks DC employees are the equal of private sector employees, let me use the words of Jerry Seinfeld: “Have you been to the DMV lately?”

  3. How Crony Capitalism (Or The ‘Undiluted Lunacy’ Of The Fed) Corrupts The Free Markets

    “This is the final abomination” is how David Stockman begins his epic rant on the Federal Reserve and crony capitalism in this clip. The “undiluted lunacy” of their actions prompted him to address the Fed’s decision to “print ourselves to death” by saying “this has gone too far, it’s street-fighting time” as he decides, instead of the erudite philosophical view of how capitalism is being destroyed by statist philosophies of one type or another, to launch into a full-strength tirade about The Fed. For starters, “The Fed is being run by the single most-dangerous man ever to hold high office in the history of the United States, “as he opines that Bernanke is more dangerous than Geithner, Greenspan, Summers, Hank Paulson all put together. Must watch…

    “Bernanke is so bad that we should wish to return to the age of Marriner Eccles in 1935 – a fiscal Keynesian who believed that money-printing would fuel speculation and inflation; if the government were going to rob the people, it should do it the honest way – through taxes”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-27/how-crony-capitalism-or-undiluted-lunacy-fed-corrupts-free-markets

    Reply
  4. Mike, as a guy who claims to support liberty, I do have one bone to pick with you. That is your assertion that physicists should stick to physics, etc. etc. NO! Everyone should go take the job that pays them the most, or at least the job they want the most

    It is called the free market.

    Reply
    • You missed my point. We don’t have free markets,we have crony capitalism, where Wall Street funnels all the money to itself. I don’t blame the physicist for making a rational choice, I blame the cronies for creating an economy where they cannot practice the profession they intended to because there is too much money shuffling paper around.

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