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Rich People Must Be Following Me

For most of the last decade I lived in Fairfax County, VA . . . and for most of that time, Fairfax County was ranked as the richest county in the United States (even with folks like me dragging down the averages ;-)). Last year, Melissa and I moved to neighboring Loudoun County, Virginia, and now, no thanks to us, Loudoun County now ranks as the richest in the country. I think the rich people are following me.

According to Forbes Magazine, the median family income in my new home county is a whopping $110,643/year.

That sounds great and all, and Melissa and I are actually slowly creeping up toward that number, but this ranking does not (apparently) take cost of living into consideration. As I often have to point out to my friends from southern Virginia, everything costs a lot more up here. In SoVA you can get a decent apartment for well under $1,000/month; up here in NoVA, almost anything under $1,400 is a roach-infested dump. It all evens out.

If you measure by quality of life, or use cost-of-living adjusted values, I’d bet the relative ‘richness’ of Loudoun, Fairfax, and the other local counties on the Forbes list would be a bit above-average, but probably not at the very top of the list.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.