Why does the rest of the country hate DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love all of these lawyers at an alphabet agency saying they could be making more at firms. The jobs are so different so as to not even be the same career.

I've been told my 160K 15/10 would be tripled by a big firm because of my specialized knowledge. I'all make the leap soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love all of these lawyers at an alphabet agency saying they could be making more at firms. The jobs are so different so as to not even be the same career.

I've been told my 160K 15/10 would be tripled by a big firm because of my specialized knowledge. I'all make the leap soon.

Then do it. Meanwhile I'll keep trying to get in touch with the agency regulator who works from home four days a week, doesn't check voicemail, and prefers not to respond to inquiries in writing (all of which he told me when I finally called the deputy).

[Anonymous]

I have one good friend who's a Fed. Because she's a worker, she does the job of everyone else around her. She complains all the time about waste.

[Anonymous]

Can we get past the myth of the army of public servants that could be making so much more in the private sector? I don't doubt that many public servants sincerely believe in the mission, but the vast majority of civil servants could not cut it long term in the private sector. This is especially true of lawyers. Sure, they may survive short term stints in big law or the private sector but most lack the temperment and personality to do it long term.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guess what? There are plenty of terrible federal employees. For example, the FBI NY Field Office Agents who seem to have a bug up their asses about the Clintons and don't mind telling the papers about their nothingburger investigations less than a week before the election? Those "patriots" are make 20% more base pay than your average fed, which is also used to calculate the defined benefit pension that they get. Coupled to the fact that they also get half a percent per year greater for their years in service, they make out like the bandits they actually are. Then, when they retire at 57 (maximum), they get to waltz into a cushy six figure security consultant job while collecting their pension. For the many federal LEOs who make this and are actually doing their jobs, I tip my hat. To these right wing political charlatans disguising themselves as agents, I say OPR needs to crawl up their asses.

Score!

[Anonymous]

911 changed this town. Billions for Homeland Security made the suburbs around DC wealthy and it became the "nouveau riche" and envy of America. When you have 4 of the top 10 wealthy counties in the country around the beltway, you are considered part of the 1%. Simple really - demographics don't lie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved to DC 30 years ago from "fly-over country" and noticed, in particular, an entitled mindset over the past 10 - 15 years. Trendy restaurants have popped up all over town, several counties have the highest incomes in the country and notice several websites that didn't exist 10 years ago that focus on the society aspect of this town. Most people here are nice and even in upper NW and Bethesda there are normal people, however its changed. I see high end cars every day, people are now taking 4 vacations a year and several people have "changed" where I no longer want to be around them with their "me" attitude. That is why many in America hate DC and my tolerance of this town is wearing thin.

Yeah I'm sure your tolerance or lack thereof would prevent some of us from going to sleep at night and, or, taking four vacations per year . Dude , fucking seriously what is your fucking deal ? You seem like a such a nice neighbor , unnecessarily concerned about others lifestyle choices . Trendy restaurants , nice cars , four vacations . I mean are we in free market society or are we in North Korea asshole . Why don't you go back to landlocked , cornfield-rich flyover state ? The earlier the better no?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:911 changed this town. Billions for Homeland Security made the suburbs around DC wealthy and it became the "nouveau riche" and envy of America. When you have 4 of the top 10 wealthy counties in the country around the beltway, you are considered part of the 1%. Simple really - demographics don't lie.

Actually it's more than 4

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So anywhere on the front range they hate DC. You say you are from Washington, DC and they stop talking to you.

Yeah. Its kind of like the poster on another thread declaring that you are a "bad" person if you vote for trump. Elsewhere, if you are from DC you are a blood-sucking leech. It doesn't matter what you really are. You just are.

[Anonymous]

Here's an on topic post. ACA has resulted in many who work getting hit with major costs for healthcare. Poorly crafted ACA resulted in this in PA which will be a Clinton state:
http://www.mcall.com/business/healthcare/mc-obamacare-open-enrollmentrecovered-thu-nov--3-123554-2016--20161105-story.html

Family of 4. 30k annually with premiums and deductible. Clinton's solution might be to raise subsidies. But that doesn't solve the fundamental problems of the risk pool. But did Obama intend this for people like those in the article? NO. Charming guy but doesn't care to represent the sort of people in the article.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/04/politics/bill-clinton-obamacare-craziest-thing/

"On the other hand, the current system works fine if you're eligible for Medicaid, if you're a lower-income working person; if you're already on Medicare, or if you get enough subsidies on a modest income that you can afford your health care," Clinton said. "But the people that are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies."

And localities [25 with the largest est pop of illegals] spend 1 billion annually on their healthcare. Read the article and the delivery method. Is this something that citizens would prefer and scrap private insurance?

We are stuck paying for them. No more medicaid no more ins. Just free. http://www.wsj.com/articles/illegal-immigrants-get-public-health-care-despite-federal-policy-1458850082

"California will have around 1.5 million adult immigrant residents without insurance in 2019. To offer Medicaid to those who meet the program’s low-income criteria, the state likely would have to find at least $400 million more a year, according to an estimate by the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education that is based on the assumption that not everyone would enroll. If everyone did, the price would likely grow to at least $720 million."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - I'm in a very similar position to you, worked hard in an Ohio public school and eventually made my way through the Ivy League to DC. The friends I had in high school who were out doing drugs, getting pregnant, and either not attending college or not finishing are not doing well these days and they're bitter. I see all of this as a logical result of our very different choices. There is a reason you no longer live there and before Facebook you would never still be in touch. Unfriend them and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

This. And the ones that stayed behind from my HS made it clear that they dont want anyone who moved away at the class 25th reunion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love all of these lawyers at an alphabet agency saying they could be making more at firms. The jobs are so different so as to not even be the same career.

I've been told my 160K 15/10 would be tripled by a big firm because of my specialized knowledge. I'all make the leap soon.

Then do it. Meanwhile I'll keep trying to get in touch with the agency regulator who works from home four days a week, doesn't check voicemail, and prefers not to respond to inquiries in writing (all of which he told me when I finally called the deputy).

That sounds like a management/communications problem.

[Anonymous]

I don't expect that Clinton will give us Feds a great raise, but with the Senate doing D and the diminished House R majority, 2.5 percent should be in order. The top end 15 should be at least 180K. I do the work of three attorneys and work weekends. I have seen just two lazy government workers in my 10 years on the job. By the way, Feds' benefits are mediocre at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember playing out in my front yard in the 1980s and watching a carpool of four neighborhood dads dropping one off at a time on our street at 4:30 on the dot each afternoon, not much later than I'd gotten home from school. They'd get out of the car in their short sleeve dress shirt and tie. Many government workers didn't value hard work, at least in the 80s, they just valued having a secure job that required light work. The dads in our neighborhood would talk about how they could never be fired from their jobs and bragged about having 6-8 weeks of vacation a year, so much they would take days off to just lounge around the house and do nohting. My dad worked 60-70 hours a week at a private company and then later, as a business owner. I would sometimes ask my dad why those dads could leave work at 3:30 every day and he had to stay at work until much later, and his departure time was never so cut and dry like theirs. And why those dads never had to go into work on a Saturday like mine often did.

That's when he taught me about the difference between going to a job day in and day out that was predictable, unstimulating and comfortable, versus one that was challenging and dynamic. He explained that most jobs of substance and that I should aspire to don't involve punching the timeclock and have a clock tell you when it's time to finish up your work for the day. Those lessons shaped me and who am I am today, the career path I chose, set a standard for the person I would eventually marry, and the values I impress upon my children.

Combined with all the negative comments on this thread about "flyover states," those are the reasons my midwestern mom and dad hated living in DC and felt the way they did.

You I can be with. If more people had your attitude, the country would be better off. Our country is using Marion Barry's Washington as a role model -- they cannot begin to solve the enormous problems we have, so they incur more debt from willing provider to throw money at problems rather than solve them. The people who created the space program actually accomplished something. If there were a space program for poverty, it could not be eliminated but it could be managed in the way it is done in other countries. Few people want to do more than be mollified by the vapid media content rather than fulfilling their roles as humans who -- like you and your parents -- actually made the world better for their labor. More's the pity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't expect that Clinton will give us Feds a great raise, but with the Senate doing D and the diminished House R majority, 2.5 percent should be in order. The top end 15 should be at least 180K. I do the work of three attorneys and work weekends. I have seen just two lazy government workers in my 10 years on the job. By the way, Feds' benefits are mediocre at best.

If you are such a good worker go to the private sector where your obvious willingness to work will be rewarded. Why don't you do that?