Posted on 12/22/2015 10:38:15 AM PST by Kaslin
The front page of the Washington Post Real Estate section promises a neighborhood that "has a home in every price range."
Inside, though, we learn that "Sleepy Hollow includes everything from 'starter houses' costing around $600,000 to multimillion-dollar properties on acre-plus lots."
In most of the country that would be considered the wealthy part of town, not a community with "a home in every price range."
That's part of the reason that more and more Americans see Washington, D.C., much like the Capitol in "The Hunger Games," as a rich and powerful city increasingly isolated from the country whose production supports it.
The Census Bureau reported that between 2000 and 2012 median household incomes in the United States dropped 6.6% — from $55,030 to $51,371. But the income of the typical D.C. household rose 23.3% between 2000 and 2012 to an inflation-adjusted $66,583. Add in the suburbs, and the Washington area median income was $88,233.
A rising tide of government spending may be bad for the American economy, but it's great for the Washington area. Washington is wealthy and getting wealthier, despite the very slow recovery in most of the country. Seven of the ten richest counties in America, including the top three, are in the Washington area. That partly reflects the fact that federal employees make substantially more money than private-sector employees. And it also reflects the boom in lobbying and contracting as government comes to claim and redistribute more of the wealth produced in all those other metropolitan areas.
Money spent in Washington, as with most national capitals, is taken from the people who produced it all over America. Washington produces little real value on its own. National defense and courts are essential to our freedom and prosperity, but that's a small part of what the federal government does these days. Most federal activity involves taking money from some people, giving it to others, and keeping a big chunk as a transaction fee.
In most of the country actual wealth is created food, energy, software, automobiles, financial services, capital allocation, movies and television, medicine -- but Washington's economy is based on the confiscation and transfer of wealth produced elsewhere. As such, Washington's wealth is a net loss for economic growth in the country.
Every business and interest group in society has an office in Washington devoted to getting some of the $4 trillion federal budget for itself: senior citizens, farmers, veterans, teachers, social workers, oil companies, labor unions, the military-industrial complex—you name it. The massive spending increases of the Bush-Obama years have created a lot of well-off people in Washington. Consulting and contracting exploded after 9/11. New regulatory burdens, notably from Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, are generating jobs in the lobbying and regulatory compliance business.
Walk down K Street, the heart of Washington's lobbying industry, and look at the directories in the office buildings. They're full of lobbyists and associations that are in Washington, for one reason: because, as Willie Sutton said about why he robbed banks, "That's where the money is."
Business people know that you have to invest to make money. Businesses invest in factories, labor, research and development, marketing, and all the other processes that bring goods to consumers and, they hope, lead to profits. They also invest in political processes that may yield profits.
If more money can be made by investing in Washington than by drilling another oil well, money will be spent there.
Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek explained the process many years ago in his prophetic book "The Road to Serfdom": "As the coercive power of the state will alone decide who is to have what, the only power worth having will be a share in the exercise of this directing power."
As the size and power of government increase, we can expect more of society's resources to be directed toward influencing government. That's good for Washington homeowners, but it's not good for economic growth across the country.
And how did that work out for the Capitol of Panem in The Hunger Games?
A house like that pictured would be less than $100 K here in Buffalo, NY, less than $200K in the local suburbs, and you get to enjoy four distinct seasons!
And you can use the $500,000 you save to go on vacations to someplace for a few weeks, if the winters get too cold or the summers get too hot for your liking.
This country is not going to turn around until the real estate market around DC collapses.
Be interesting to see one of the Left’s famous income disparity analyses for the Washington DC region.
When we moved to Georgia our county was on the list of wealthiest in the US. Now all of the top 10 are in the Washington DC metropolitan area. So much for the poor government workers struggling to get by.
I don’t care if they were free. I couldn’t stand living that close to a next door neighbor.
“This country is not going to turn around until the real estate market around DC collapses. “
Folks, we have a WINNER!!
A $600,000 “starter home” in Washington DC. I guess 20-somethings who have just landed their first job with a government agency can afford $30,000 of loan payments a year. Must be nice.
In middle America hinterlands the incomes and benefits of people who actually produce, have been stagnant, reduced, slashed, and or their jobs and industries completely eliminated. Even their healthcare has been corrupted by those in government.
Yet those in live in the seat of government ruling class area such as D.C., tax paid incomes, benefits and pensions and have risen steadily.
Middle America best eliminate and destroy this level of corruption, or it will be them and their kids who will eventually be eliminated.
IMHO I don't think the lifestyle in Buffalo NY compares to the lifestyle of being in the Nation's Capital where a lot of the world's news originates. Being able to drive 15 minutes and walk among the museums and monuments at any time of day or night, or going to any number of other cultural arts or sports events is wonderful and worth the price for some folks. This neighborhood has higher prices because of the lot sizes, house sizes and charm, and because of the location, close to DC and Arlington for all those workers pulling down very long hours and weekends, without adding an extra 2 hours to commuting. Being "inside the Beltway" is just a higher priced housing because of the commuting. The writer fails to mention the lower priced options of condos and townhouses in many nearby communities, plus rentals
And the lobbying class can be crippled as well by simply requiring that all political donations be ANONYMOUS. A politician can't sell influence if he doesn't know who's buying. But the donor retains the freedom to back whomever he believes will act in his interest.
It might collapse in about 90 seconds if the 'Rats don't quit sucking up to Iran.
I put it to you that with the possible exception of uniformed members of the Armed Forces getting a US Government paycheck,or retirement check,is a nationwide Rat Party scam.
Excellent article.
I walked around NW Washington and nearby Maryland and saw modest houses, just like mine here in Pittsburgh, that sold for 12 to 15 times as much.
You walk around D.C. and money is palpably bubbling up through the sidewalks at you. Money that was stolen from the rest of America.
Nary a closed business or boarded-up building to be found. At least until you get out to around Hagerstown on your drive home.
A good bit of it is manufactured electronically in New York, diluting assets nationwide and spent to profit "investors," often overseas.
They set themselves up and rigged the system while the rest of us worked the private sector. When the house of cards started coming down, the printing presses turned 30,000 rpm.
Agree. Those in government have literally subverted and undermined middle America while at the same time rewarded those on the government payrolls.
Very depressing disgusting stuff.
While we were busy, the fox invaded the hen house and rewrote all the rules.
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