If government is anti-prosperity, then why do the places of high government offices, the capital cities, rich?
Maybe its not true for all cases, but in general the capitals of countries like Beijing, Bangkok, Manila, London, Moscow are the richest cities in that country. I don’t know about Washington, I don’t live in the US.
And the leftists always say that these countries are rich because the government has a lot of development projects there. How do I respond to this?
If government is anti-prosperity, then why do the places of high government offices, the capital cities, rich?
Government is certainly pro-prosperity. Prosperity for the members of the government and their clients, that is. The prosperity of its subjects are of little interest.
Washington, D.C. is not a great place, by the way.
And the leftists always say that these countries are rich because the government has a lot of development projects there. How do I respond to this?
Well, you can ask them to actually demonstrate this. Are these cities a net producer of wealth or consumer? Are these places prosperous because their inhabitants serve their fellow men or because they are recipients and beneficiaries of plunder?
“If government is anti-prosperity, then why do the places of high government offices, the capital cities, rich?”
Places with high government offices are rich because that is where tax dollars are routed.
“And the leftists always say that these countries are rich because the government has a lot of development projects there. How do I respond to this?”
They’ve gotten it backwards. The governments of wealthy nations have a larger pool of wealth to tax from and therefore more to spend on projects.
The capitol of my state, Salem, OR has awesome shopping and retail stores but no industry to speak of, except state bureaus. You do the math. (This article might help.)
Clayton -
At the time of the Roman Empire to (at least) the fall of Constantinople the main theory is that cities were usually gigantic money pits and unprofitable; built for vanity and control of the Empire. This theory has been contested in more recent times, I won’t cite sources or give the argument for either side at this moment (as I am busy), but I will do so upon request.
Yeah when they make this claim you should totally have a list of pirates and thieves ready and ask if this is how we should become prosperous.
Normally the capital is set in the richest city, and save some meteor hitting it, that city will keep being rich in the future. That is why capitals are often rich. But take those countries which’s capital have been set politically: is no match for , for NY and many other similar cases.
Because governments fund themselves through theft. And few people are willing to pay the theif absence threats of violence. The people who perform these threats exist near the central government as the leaders of government fear their own enforcers most of all. The leaders of government must expend resources to keep those running the theft happy otherwise they the enforcers will change the leadership. So even in the poorest countries like Hati, the seats of power are plush places and the cities and areas housing that power are relatively wealthy areas as well.
All the people I know who work for the government are vastly overpaid and get outrages benefits.
What do they say if/when you confront them about their supercompensation?
Northwest DC is a very nice area, and its surrounding counties are very rich as well (except for PG)
Well the only person I’ve confronted about it is my mom. She works at a government funded head start school and she agreed with everything I told her. She’s always telling me about how her co workers get mad when she dosen’t pay any attention to them and only focuses on her work.
Just because their slackers who goof off instead of working they think she should do the same. Since she doesn’t do this they assume she thinks that she’s “better than everyone else”. She said most of them got mad when they found out she got started off at a higher wage because of her experience and bilingual abiltites. It’s situations like these, when I just start thinking of all the special interest groups who get mad because someoene is better than them at something (whatever it may be), so they have to do something politically to level the playing field.
Btw she works in the office not a classroom.