I spent a week in Wash DC / NoVa in April on vacation.
Because the area is so prosperous due to the massive expansion of the FedGov, prices for everything are outrageous.
My cousin lives in an 800,000 house that would be 80,000 here in Indiana.
It's truly a fairy tale land.
We just moved from the WDC area (thank God). You are so right. The WDC area is a distortion caused by the highly-inflated pay of the government workers and by the high number of well-paid government retirees. Your tax money “at work”. Similarly, there is an excess of various people on the dole who are there because of the various wqell-funded “programs” funded by the liberal taxpaters. It is one big cluster-f*** funded by your taxes.
If the average American saw the excessive and plush government offices, realized just how much these people are paid and so forth, there would be a run on tar and feathers.
Yeah, I hear the fairies get a lot of tale there.