MORE PROOF THAT LITTLE THINGS CAN HAVE HUGE CONSEQUENCES: A pay raise of 2.29 percent in 2018 might seem rather insignificant. But if you live in a county with a median household income of $125,900, it means you will have an additional $2,883 in your paycheck, starting New Year’s Day.

That 2.29 percent is the amount of the Locality Pay raise for federal workers living in the Washington, D.C. region.  Feds living in nearby Howard County, Md., Falls Church, Va., Fairfax, Va. and Arlington, Va., will also get that percentage. Washington, D.C., you will recall, is the ultimate company town and the company is “bureaucracy.”

Oh, there’s one more thing: Those four jurisdictions are, respectively, first, second, third, fourth and eighth among the top 10 U.S. richest counties, ranked according median household income. Bet you’ve never even heard of Locality Pay, even though you fund it with your taxes. Paying 2.1 million federal bureaucrats (not counting members of the U.S. military) cost you $276 billion last year.