WHILE AMERICA GETS POORER, Washington is getting richer. “After the 2000 Census, the richest county in America was Douglas County, Colorado. By 2007, Douglas County had fallen to sixth. The new top three are now Loudon County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Howard County, Maryland. All three are suburbs or exurbs of Washington, D.C. . . . All of this is fine if you happen to live in the D.C. area. It’s not so great for the country as a whole. . . . The problem is that, save for the tech corridor in D.C.’s Virginia exurbs, the Washington Metro area doesn’t actually produce anything. Washington doesn’t create wealth, it just moves it around—redistributes it. As government grows and takes control of more and more of the private economy—either through spending, regulation, or taxes—more and more wealth that’s created elsewhere comes to Washington to be devoured.”

Nope. The pattern of wealth flowing toward the capital is one that the United States avoided for nearly 200 years. Not anymore.