Study: five of the 10 richest US counties are in the DC metro area.
- Thread starter NZ Poke
- Start date
Stealing from the rest of the country.
I was reading that if Trump slashed government like he wants to, housing prices would probably drop by 15-20% in the DC metro area.
I was reading that if Trump slashed government like he wants to, housing prices would probably drop by 15-20% in the DC metro area.
It's interesting that the DC area has become filthy rich while America's infrastructure has become increasingly third world.
It's also interesting that the Republican congress has wasted all of 2017 investigating "Russia," rather than giving American workers a tax cut (and improving our infrastructure) --- things that would benefit citizens' daily lives.
#Uniparty
It's also interesting that the Republican congress has wasted all of 2017 investigating "Russia," rather than giving American workers a tax cut (and improving our infrastructure) --- things that would benefit citizens' daily lives.
#Uniparty
Guys, as someone that lived there a long time let me 'splain some of this to you.
1. These are all in the suburbs and what has made most of the wealth over the last 25-30 yrs has been the explosion of wealth that came from the "Tech" field. I know everyone knows about Silicon Valley, but much less well known is that there a huge number of tech companies, particularly in the internet field who are located in the counties mentioned above.
The original and for a long time SOLE registrar of domain names, is Network Solutions. The day their stock went public, that company alone made about 500 millionaires from their employees who held stock options. The same was true for any number of tech and internet companies in the region which are/were numerous.
2. Heavy concentration of Defense Contractors due to the proximity to the Pentagon. It shouldn't surprise anyone how lucrative that market space is. Most of the employees live in the suburban areas listed above. Many of the retired higher ranking officers from the various branches end up doing a rotation with the various defense companies and are very well compensated.
3. There's another very important factor in play here that is getting ignored, the education level of the residents in these counties is off-the-charts compared to most counties around the country. There is one metric shit-ton of people who hold masters and doctorates who live there. I'd be willing to bet that there are more people who hold JD's and PhD's in Fairfax and Arlington County, VA alone than in the entire State of Oklahoma combined with Arkansas and Kansas for good measure.
4. Much of the surrounding suburbs in Maryland also are quite wealthy for much of the same reasons.
IMHO you people are conflating together many issues that are not really relevant to the discussion simply because you've never lived there or really understand the underlying economic drivers of the region. While Govt is certainly a substantial player, it's far from what has caused the massive economic growth in the area over the last 30 yrs. It honestly in many respects is "Silicon Valley East" when it comes to the number of successful internet companies. The number of overnight multi-millionaires that popped up in those counties between 1994 and 2005 was staggering.
1. These are all in the suburbs and what has made most of the wealth over the last 25-30 yrs has been the explosion of wealth that came from the "Tech" field. I know everyone knows about Silicon Valley, but much less well known is that there a huge number of tech companies, particularly in the internet field who are located in the counties mentioned above.
The original and for a long time SOLE registrar of domain names, is Network Solutions. The day their stock went public, that company alone made about 500 millionaires from their employees who held stock options. The same was true for any number of tech and internet companies in the region which are/were numerous.
2. Heavy concentration of Defense Contractors due to the proximity to the Pentagon. It shouldn't surprise anyone how lucrative that market space is. Most of the employees live in the suburban areas listed above. Many of the retired higher ranking officers from the various branches end up doing a rotation with the various defense companies and are very well compensated.
3. There's another very important factor in play here that is getting ignored, the education level of the residents in these counties is off-the-charts compared to most counties around the country. There is one metric shit-ton of people who hold masters and doctorates who live there. I'd be willing to bet that there are more people who hold JD's and PhD's in Fairfax and Arlington County, VA alone than in the entire State of Oklahoma combined with Arkansas and Kansas for good measure.
4. Much of the surrounding suburbs in Maryland also are quite wealthy for much of the same reasons.
IMHO you people are conflating together many issues that are not really relevant to the discussion simply because you've never lived there or really understand the underlying economic drivers of the region. While Govt is certainly a substantial player, it's far from what has caused the massive economic growth in the area over the last 30 yrs. It honestly in many respects is "Silicon Valley East" when it comes to the number of successful internet companies. The number of overnight multi-millionaires that popped up in those counties between 1994 and 2005 was staggering.
all that being said it's still an effin swamp
Whether true or not there is a problem when non millionaires get elected to work for the people and leave as multimillionaires in a short time. There is one or two people in congress that I actually trust. The others are a bunch of lying sack of shits that are there to keep getting elected, that's it.
Elected officials in DC number less than 600 people. A tiny fraction of the population in those 5 counties. Even if you toss in executive branch political appointments you are still talking less than 5,000. Those people are not making up the bulk of those who are wealthy.
The entire premise is way, way off from the get-go as the notion that it's a "place that doesn't make anything" is completely off the mark. There's an incredible amount of R&D done in the area from the medical field, to energy (college park MD has been a leader in hydrogen Fuel Cell technology), to defense, to computer/internet technology, to lots of other sectors.
Nearly ALL of this wealth has been created in the private sector, especially as I mentioned in the internet/tech area. The other thing to factor in, is that most of these counties have practically doubled their population base over the last 30 yrs and almost all of the new "immigrants" from other places were already wealthy or highly educated who moved to take very high-paying jobs.
While I'm not completely discounting the amount of wealth tied to the region being the seat of govt power, in reality that is dwarfed by what has happened in private industry and all the services that have arisen to meet the demand of those with high income/wealth.
Why are all those rich educated people in that region to begin with? If congress were to move to say Dodge City KS would the surrounding counties suddenly become 5 of the 10 richest counties in America?
