Comments (2)

• IMHO

• When I was young, every mother's dream was that their daughter would marry a doctor or a lawyer.

  Now politicians have entered the field of eligibility. A woman I know recently commented upon how she would love to marry a rich politician.

  What is unfortunate, however, is the fact that this woman is a liberal turned self-styled Libertarian (note the capital L) and sees absolutely no conflict between her political philosophy and the fact that she wants to live the good life at the expense of the taxpayer.

• Published: February 24, 2008 6:53 AM

• Kevin

• I grew up in Howard County, Maryland which is somewhat unique in that from a home there, one can easily commute to either Baltimore or Washington, DC. I think that there is some causation with such a high concentration of the Top 20 counties being close to Washington. My reasoning is that the Federal Government provides an extra industry worth of "middle-class jobs." (Upper middle if you have a security clearance.) All areas have their state and local government jobs. The difference between state/local government jobs and federal jobs is that Washington DC is drawing in wealth from across the entire country so there are great sums coming in with little thought given to where it comes from. Nobody working for the local township in Anytown, USA will be living lavishly because it's quite obvious they are stealing from their neighbors. The state level is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. Annapolis, MD (the state capital) is a wealthy town in an area traditionally based on farming and fishing industries. It may be unprovable, but I'm inclined to think that such wealth would not be concentrated in Annapolis were the state capital to be Baltimore or out in western Maryland (even with Annapolis' Naval significance). Having lived primarily in this area, but also near Boston for a few years, I distinctly remember being surprised at how the bulk of employers around Boston were companies producing household-name products and services. In middle-class neighborhoods around DC, many of the people work for the government, directly or as a contractor. Those that don't have probably sent in a resume or job application at least once. Government jobs, with their excellent benefits and great hours, are highly sought after. While I haven't necessarily proven that there is causation with this correlation, from my eyes it seems quite obvious that there is. I can't imagine someone arguing the contrary and having much success.

• Published: February 24, 2008 11:09 PM