No Hard Times in DC

What Recession!?!

While most of America is walking around with a barrel and suspenders for clothing, the Washington DC and its surrounding burbs seem to be doing quite well. Obviously, when you have hundreds of billions of dollars of other people's money to toss around, you're going to develop a pretty decent nest egg for yourself. Reason takes a hard look at this affluence amidst despair:

The problem is that, save for the tech corridor in D.C.'s Virginia exurbs, the Washington Metro area doesn't actually produce anything. Washington doesn't create wealth, it just moves it around—redistributes it. As government grows and takes control of more and more of the private economy—either through spending, regulation, or taxes—more and more wealth that's created elsewhere comes to Washington to be devoured.

The Washington wealth boom is the result of the massive expansion in government over the last 10 years, which has populated the region with an increase in well-paid federal employees, and wealthy federal contractors and lobbyists.

I understand when politicians talk about needing to buckle down during tough times. But they could at least try to show the slightest hint of leadership by not doing things like allowing an exorbitant pay raise while everyone else is barely getting by. There may be some subtle signs that greed and corruption are a part of our federal government. Who would've thought...