We have a couple of recent problems facing this country.
1. Widening income equality. The Coasts are getting more affluent and the non-oceanic states are getting more poor as time moves along. If you want to know why the Tea Party and conservative voices resonate in the 'fly-over" states, you have to follow where the wealth is generated. It ain't in Kansas. The liberal states of the East Coast and California are seeing rising per capita incomes and better living standards and this has the constituents in the fly-over states pretty pissed off. Never mind that federal subsidies and tax funding from social service programs flow in overwhelming numbers from "Blue" states to "Red" states.
2. The fact that DC is a huge jobs generator is NOT a good sign for nation's economy. There was a time in this nation's history that many jobs were created in the manufacturing sector and later in the professional ranks for private companies. The greatest economic growth of US history 1945-1970 was generated in cities like Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Chicago. Not so much anymore.
Corporations have adapted to market conditions by extracting more productivity out of current workers. Globalization is keeping labor costs in check. Federal regulations have weakened unions and collective bargaining of workers for the past couple of decades. All in all...it's a tough time for a worker whether you have a white or blue collar.
Since job growth has been anemic in major markets, people are coming to DC for jobs. Where are the jobs? Well, duh...the jobs are going to contracting firms that service federal government agencies. Jobs are also being created in law and public relations firms that advocate pro-business positions. The campaign finance rules are a complete joke and the Supreme Court ruling from the Citizens United decision makes the situation more lucrative for the lobbying biz.
There are only a handful metro region markets that are ADDING professional jobs. Houston and Dallas are adding white-collar and skilled labor because of the petroleum industry. Your $4.00 a gallon payment at the pump is creating some quality jobs in Texas. And DC is the other big job generator market because of the federal government.
That's it...we live in the age of Big Job Bust for college grads. You can out-source engineering positions to China, Russia or India in the private sector. With the federal government, you CANNOT outsource most IT positions to third-world countries. Many job seekers from around the United States realized this "protected" market and this is why you see many U-Haul trucks coming to the DC region.
The contractors for the defense and homeland security industries are protected from market conditions because of they have ONE influential customer: the federal government. And the feds don't want Chinese workers to provide critical IT support to government agencies.
When you work directly for the federal government or you are a contractor for the Feds you do not have to worry about your job getting exported to China. Your job cannot be out-sourced to a foreign country by law. No pink-slips to worry about as long as the budget gets approved by Congress. Period. End of story. I have no further points to make.
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Originally Posted by paytonc
I certainly agree with him on one point: there isn't enough entrepreneurial zing around. That said, a lot of what he says is a tired recitation of anti-urban-elite right-wing talking points, and almost all of it can be applied to any major metro in America -- and is in fact applied by rural populists in every state in America. (Newsflash: inequality has skyrocketed everywhere in America.) Even the "they're just government leeches" canard can equally apply to pretty much any other city: Hollywood and Wall Street are frequently portrayed as leeching off the hard work of average Americans, even though metro areas generate almost all of the nation's wealth.
Governments and government towns everywhere have been expanding at the expense of their regions; note that many of the only growing cities in the Midwest, a region not known for its affinity for big government, are state capitals. That's a fact of life, driven almost entirely by automatic increases in entitlements and other services that government provides. A recent Economist article outlined this trend; it pointed to the "Baumol effect," wherein government services are resistant to productivity increases. It's hard to do more with fewer teachers, nurses, police officers, etc. when your quality standards are tied to the ratio of clients to employees -- and often rightly so, since these are high-contact occupations where quality declines substantially when employees' attention is divided between ever-more clients.
He also makes a bit of a circular argument: he says DC housing prices are too high, and then points out that housing prices are lower than in comparably wealthy areas (albeit higher amenity, e.g., Marin County). Well, one or the other, bub. |
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