Seven of ten of the nation's wealthiest counties are in the metro area of Washington, D.C. 

The metro area has passed Silicon Valley as the richest region in the country.

And D.C. has the highest rate of consumption of fine wines (Source:  City Journal).

Mammoth marble government buildings in D.C. rival the grandiose plans for Berlin by architect Albert Speer of the Third Reich.  

One of the biggest testaments to big government is right off the Washington Mall, where herds of tourists pass it without giving it a second thought.   Three blocks long and three stories high, its massive size is broken up by guard posts every couple of hundred feet. 

Why the guards?  Is it the U.S. Mint?  The U.S. Treasury?

No, it's the Department of Agriculture.  It's where something as valuable as money is produced.  I'm not referring to food, which would be produced in even higher quantities if the department didn't exist.  I'm referring to food stamps, farm subsidies, and price-fixing for favored interests.

The tourist season will soon begin in D.C.  Americans will turn out en masse to pay homage to their rulers, apparently not making a connection between their declining income and the pretty buildings and rising wealth in D.C.  If they had a lick of sense, they'd boycott the city.

And if they were taught a lick of history, they'd know that all levels of government now consume nearly 50% of national income (their income), versus about 12% a century ago.  But the apparatchiks who teach in K-12 public schools and in universities dependent on government money are certainly not going to teach such heresy.

At least Jimmy Buffet had a lick of sense, even after consuming numerous margaritas.  Here is what he would have written and sung about Washington:

Gorging on the welfare state

Watchin' the sun bake

All those tourists covered in tax

Strummin' my six-string

In front of the West Wing

See those suckers worshipping a plutocrat

Wastin' away again in Leviathan

Searching for lost freedom on the asphalt

Some people blame their politician

But I know it's everyone's fault

I don't know the reason

They flock here each season

Nothin' to show but their brand new W-2

But it's a real beauty

A Washington cutie

How their pay declined they haven't a clue

Wastin' away again in Leviathan

Searching for lost freedom on the asphalt

Some people blame their politician

But I know it's everyone's fault

I blew out my flip-flop

Stepped on a pop-top

Cut my heel and had to cruise on back home

But there's free stuff in the mail

And soon it will enable

The entitlements that help me hang on

Wastin' away again in Leviathan

Searching for lost freedom on the asphalt

Some people blame their politician

But I know it's everyone's fault