where 1 in 12 is a lawyer and police are mandated to ignore the immigration status of illegal alien/criminals
On Oct 26, 3:24 pm, Bruce Majors <[email protected]> wrote: > Washington's Parasite > Economy<http://reason.com/archives/2011/10/25/washingtons-parasite-economy>Life > is good in the capital of crony capitalism. > > Gene Healy <http://reason.com/people/gene-healy> | October 25, 2011 > > *Editor's Note: This column is reprinted with permission of the Washington > Examiner. > <http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/09/al-qaeda-was...>Click > here<http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/10/life-good-ca...> > to > read it at that site.* > > In the wake of Apple CEO Steve Jobs's death—and in the midst of the ongoing > "Occupy Wall Street" protests—came an ominous report from Bloomberg News > last week: > > "Beltway Earnings Make U.S. Capital Richer Than Silicon Valley." According > to the latest Census figures, Washington, D.C. is now the wealthiest > metropolitan area in the United States. > > That's good news for local property values, but I can't say it fills me with > hometown pride. After all, Silicon Valley's wealth was earned—just rewards > voluntarily given for producing innovations that have dramatically improved > our lives. > > In contrast, D.C.'s prosperity reflects a parasite economy that battens on > wealth created by others. We live in a vast, metastasizing tick of a city, > swollen on the lifeblood it drains from the body politic. This is one race > the home team deserved to lose. > > As former *Slate* reporter Jack Shafer once put it, "Washington doesn't make > anything except scandals." But its "regulatory powers, its executive orders, > its judicial decisions, its ability to conjure money out of thin air, and > its budget-making authority," give D.C. the ability to dictate "who can do > business and how." > > This city's wealth is largely based on what public choice economists call > "rent-seeking," using the political process to rig the game in one's > favor—through subsidies, tariffs, regulatory advantages, and other benefits > unavailable via free and fair competition. > > "The rent-seeking is too damn high!" economist Alex Tabarrok quipped upon > reading the Bloomberg report. True enough: spending on lobbyists set another > record last year, at $3.5 billion, according to the Center for Responsive > Politics. > > Other factors that allowed Washington to edge out San Jose, according to > Bloomberg, include "federal employees whose compensation averages more than > $126,000," the burgeoning Military/Homeland-Security Industrial Complex, > "the nation's greatest concentration of lawyers," and a glut of federal > dollars that's kept regional unemployment three points lower than the > national average. > > Indeed, as *The Wall Street Journal* reported last year, the District and > neighboring congressional districts in Maryland and Virginia soaked up over > $3.7 billion of President Obama's stimulus package—almost $2,000 per > resident, "nearly three times the national average." > > To the extent the "Occupy" protests aimed at Wall Street and K Street have a > common theme, it's concern about economic inequality. Given the Occupiers' > complaints about "Crony Capitalism," though, this doesn't look like simple > leftist resentment of the productive. But this "We are the 99 percent" > business is far too pat. > > As my former colleague Will Wilkinson argued in a 2009 Cato Institute Study > entitled “Thinking Clearly about Economic Inequality," "at best, income > inequality is a distraction." Wealth disparities are not, by themselves, > some sort of automatic indicator of injustice. > > Unequal wealth can be a just result of free and fair exchange, where > talented Americans reap rewards from providing goods and services their > fellow citizens greatly value—as in the case of Steve Jobs—in which case, > there's no injustice to remedy. > > Or it can be the result of "predation by political elites," in which case, > it's the predation that should be tackled directly, Wilkinson argues, so > "the fire is the problem, not the alarm." > > That the hometown of the political class has passed the home of the creative > class in wealth and influence is genuine cause for alarm. Washington, D.C. > is the capital of Crony Capitalism—and it's only growing richer. That > inequality is worth worrying about. > > *Gene Healy is a vice president at the Cato Institute > <http://www.cato.org/> and author > of *The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive > Power <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1933995157/reasonmagazineA/>* > (Cato > 2008). He is a columnist at the* Washington > Examiner<http://washingtonexaminer.com/> > *, where a version of this article originally appeared. > <http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/05/president-ob...>Click > here<http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/10/life-good-ca...> > to > read it at that site.* -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
