Liberty Minute June 5 2013

Most of the U.S. economy remains mired in a recession, but Washington, D.C. and its surrounding counties continue to thrive. Mass bloodshed provided the fertilizer in which Washington has bloomed, as the expanding war economy has led the Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and military contractors to bring hundreds of thousands of new residents into the region.

The result, as the Wall Street Journal observes, is a new ?Gilded Age? for Washington, which has been ?a time of lush business profits fueled by government outsourcing and war.? Well-connected recent college graduates secure entry-level bureaucratic jobs that pay enough to support rentals that charge $3,000 a month. Military contractors like Northrup Gumman, corporate lobbying groups, and Wall Street firms bring in hordes of first-time home buyers, driving real estate values upward. Owing to their connections, Democratic Party insiders like Frank Islam and Debbie Driesman can afford to build a 40,000-square foot French chateau-style mansion in Potomac, Maryland, buying up and demolishing adjacent houses in the process.

After the housing bubble burst in 2007, the national economy collapsed. However, as the New York Times points out, ?as the country withered, Washington blossomed.? This does much to explain the invincible indifference of the ruling class to our nation?s unfolding economic catastrophe.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.