It has been noted of late that the income of the top 1% in the United States has gone up drastically in the last few decades compared to the average working Joe. While this is true and I don't dispute it, why don't we take a look at where the richest counties in the US are. This study is therefore not based on the top 1% who are being demonized in the media of late but where the highest average incomes are concentrated. You might want to consider moving there and getting in on where the real action is.
The idea for this came to me from watching the Peter Schiff interview of the OWS'ers in New York. You might want to check it out if you have 18 minutes.
So, where would you think the richest counties are based on income? If you want to blame the evil CEO's of corporations for part of the destruction of our economy, especially the banksters, I would think you would probably focus on the New York area where the OWS movement started and where the banking and financial center of the United States is. You would be wrong.
Maybe you would look in Silicon Valley or up in Washington State where Microsoft and Boeing is. Wrong again.
Maybe you would look in the LA/Hollywood area where there are entire collections of rich movie stars and pro athletes. Wrong again.
The top 3 counties in the United States, and 4 of the top 6, are in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The top 25 counties can be found here. In first place is Loudoun County, VA, with a median family income of $110,643. 2nd place goes to Fairfax County, VA with $106,785, and 3rd goes to Howard County, MD, with $101,710. And according to the Wikipedia article of the Washington Metro Area, of the 5.5 million people living there the median income is $72,800.
To put it mildly, the Washington Metro Area is kicking ass.
"12.2% of Northern Virginia's 881,136 households, 8.5% of suburban Maryland's 799,300 households, and 8.2% of Washington's 249,805 households have an annual income in excess of $200,000, compared to 3.7% nationally."
"The various agencies of the Federal Government employ over 140,000 professionals in the Washington D.C. area. A sizable number in the Washington D.C. area work for defense and civilian contracting companies that conduct business directly with the Federal Government (many of these firms are referred to as 'Beltway Bandits' under the local vernacular). As a result, the Federal Government provides the underlying basis of the economy in the region."
Of course, not everybody in the area works directly for the government, and there are some really nice jobs in the private sector there, especially if you work in the military industrial complex. There is no recession in that industry.
"Many defense contractors are based in the region to be close to the Pentagon in Arlington. Local defense contractors include Lockheed Martin, the largest, as well as Raytheon, General Dynamics, BAE Systems, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), CACI, and Orbital Sciences Corporation. Northrup Grumman is to move its headquarters to the region by the summer of 2011.\
So you can work at Wal-mart and bitch about it or you can go where the action is. Median income at $72,800? Sounds pretty good to me.
I need to get my Keester to Virginia!
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