Maryland is the Nation’s Wealthiest State
By Silver Springer • Aug 29th, 2007 • Category: Business and Economic Development, Government and Politics
Sooner rather than later, Maryland has walk over New Jersey by a considerable difference to become the wealthiest state in the nation.
The 2006 American Community Survey through the U.S. Census Bureau is out with estimates of demographic data for the United States.
Back in January, the Silver Spring Scene reported that Maryland was very close to achieving the number one spot over New Jersey, the difference between the two states in 2005 was only $80.
The 2006 estimates show a greater disparity between the two states of $674. Maryland had a median household income of $65,144 while New Jersey was $64,470.
In other states, Virginia fell from 8th to 9th place to $56,277, it switched places with California. D.C. jumped from 19th to 16th place to reach $51, 847.
Median Household Income is commonly used to measure a jurisdictions wealth; the median for the United States was $48,451.
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Though it’s nice that Maryland is on top, you should probably mention that Maryland and New Jersey are in a statistical tie for first place, and that statistically Connecticut and Maryland are only $200 apart taking into account the margins of error. Basically what I’m trying to say is that pretty much those three states have dominated the top 3 in recent memory and there is no real statistical differences between them.
Pennster,
I’m not sure how you arrived at the notion that MD and NJ are in a statistical tie for first place. The data here, including the margin of error, do not suggest that.
Take out Montgomery County and where would Maryland rank then? The per capita income is pretty high in Howard County as well.
I bet poor working class people in Garrett County or those who live in the slums of Baltimore must be pretty proud of Maryland’s achievement. Gee, if the state is so wealthy then how come there isn’t much coin jingling in the pockets of working and middle-class people.
If you remove MontCo and Howard Counties, Maryland could easily drop in the bottom half of the state rankings.
Maybe, but then you’d have to remove the two (or more to make it proportional) richest counties from every other state to make the comparison fair. Take Fairfax and Loudoun out of Virginia and who knows where they’d end up.
That’s my point. The state income rankings are totally bogus. Look, the US Dept. of Commerce should do a gini coefficient rating that measures income inequality for all of the 50 states and The District of Columbia. I guarantee that Maryland will rate much worse if you measure inequality.
IHateYuppies: maybe you should sell your iPod and donate the money to a middle-class charity? (preferably a non-MoCo charity)
BTW: before you mouth off and say a bunch of stupid insults… this is a JOKE, I agree that class-disparity sucks (but I don’t hate yuppies).
Oh, he just likes to whine about anybody that has more than him. I guarantee you that one day when he grows up and earns much more money, he’s not going to donate 1/2 his income to all the causes he supports. He’s going to enjoy it and buy things like a good yuppie consumer. He may not waste, but he sure as hell won’t drop back down to his “hardworking everyday people” salary so he can donate the difference to the needy. It’s basic hypocricy.
MP:
If you know how to read statistics, when determining statistical significances, in this case, you take MD’s income and subtract the margin of error reaching $64,485. For NJ you take the income and add the margin of error reaching $65,128, which is now higher than MD’s. That means that either one of those two states could be either first or second. By the way, the Baltimore Sun, which ran an article on this yesterday, stated the same thing I just did. I’ve taken many stat classes (and still do) and deal with statistics on a daily basis at work and in the classroom.
Silver Springer, I highly suggest editing your article to be factually correct because the statistics show that MD and NJ are in a statistical tie meaning there is no significant difference between their numbers.
Ihateyuppies, you would not only have to remove Montgomery and Howard Counties, you would have to remove Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Frederick, Harford, Prince George’s and slew of others. Keep in mind over 80% of the state’s population are in the counties mentioned. Take out Montgomery and you’re taking out nearly a million people in a state with over 5 million, so 20% is gone from your analysis.
People forget where the population resides. And we have not taken into account projects like National Harbor (which is the largest development in the D.C. area and possibly the East Coast) , Konterra and Greenbelt Station., all mega projects in Prince George’s County. Then you have Baltimore City which is undergoing the largest change in the last 40 years, there you have two separate bioparks under construction just to scratch the surface. BWI is becoming highly competitive everyday. Annapolis is cleaning up with the Parole. And we cannot forget BRAC which is spurring over 15 million square feet of office space around Fort Meade and bringing what is most important…jobs!
Maryland is also notorious for souring good news.
Comment by IHateYuppies
Made Wednesday, 29 of August , 2007 at 12:49 pm
Take out Montgomery County and where would Maryland rank then? The per capita income is pretty high in Howard County as well.
I bet poor working class people in Garrett County or those who live in the slums of Baltimore must be pretty proud of Maryland’s achievement. Gee, if the state is so wealthy then how come there isn’t much coin jingling in the pockets of working and middle-class people.
If you remove MontCo and Howard Counties, Maryland could easily drop in the bottom half of the state rankings.
RE: Take out Fairfax County, Loudon County, and Prince William County and Virginia would rank the top 3 poorest States in America with possibly tying the first spot with Mississippi…….
In other words You and Your Maryland Hating Virginians can Rott In F—ing Hell for Eternity because you Virginian Fat Cat Good Ol’ Boys will not get away with F—ing over Maryland like you people have gotten away with for about 40 years………….
The Business/Economic BACKLASH WILL COME INTO FRUITATION for Virginia and like the Old Saying Goes: You can Sit and Wait for it because It Is Going to Happen and When it does arrive don’t go crying like a little B—–…………..
Comment by Pennster
Made Wednesday, 29 of August , 2007 at 4:08 pm
MP:
If you know how to read statistics, when determining statistical significances, in this case, you take MD’s income and subtract the margin of error reaching $64,485. For NJ you take the income and add the margin of error reaching $65,128, which is now higher than MD’s. That means that either one of those two states could be either first or second. By the way, the Baltimore Sun, which ran an article on this yesterday, stated the same thing I just did. I’ve taken many stat classes (and still do) and deal with statistics on a daily basis at work and in the classroom.
Silver Springer, I highly suggest editing your article to be factually correct because the statistics show that MD and NJ are in a statistical tie meaning there is no significant difference between their numbers.
RE: Oh yeah and your not saying this out of Maryland Hatred Too because most Virginians or any other Maryland Hating Southerner are known to display Hatred towards the state of Maryland……….
“Gee, if the state is so wealthy then how come there isn’t much coin jingling in the pockets of working and middle-class people.”
Source that. And remember that income inequality increasing doesn’t actually mean the poor have less money - it just means their salaries didn’t increase as fast as the rich. No surprise, given the influx of cheap unskilled labor in these parts. Yes, IHY, those illegal immigrants hurt the poor way more than the rich.
Lol Rich, you are ridiculous. I don’t like skewed facts and like to get the most accurate information out there, even if it makes Maryland’s number 1 spot a tiny bit less significant. Born and raised in Silver Spring (and still living here), I am delighted that MD has taken the #1 spot but not disillusioned by the fact that statistically there is no difference between the top 2 spots. I’m not from Virginia, nor am I a Southerner so I have no idea what you’re talking about. Consider learning proper English. We don’t capitalize all nouns like Germans. Another odd response by you will be met by silence.
DMZ…
Read the “Great Risk Shift” by Jacob Hacker. I found this article in the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/us/29census.html?ex=1346040000&en=f44009a7576b04db&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
Incomes of middle-class Americans have stagnated for over 30 years. Long before the growth of illegal immigrant labor hit many US metropolitan areas starting in the late 1980s.
Corporations and small businesses will squeeze employee wages and benefits for the sake of profit. That’s how things run in today’s economy. We are racing towards the bottom with workers not getting enough pay increases or getting adequate health care coverage.
LOL Pennster. Uh-oh, you are a Maryland-hating, Virginia-loving, Confederate-worshipping scoundrel too, eh? Join the club.
FYI: I just checked the website of Cassidy & Pinkard.. the real estate company selling The Blairs.
They’re in the “Selecting Buyer” phase.
http://www.cassidypinkard.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=31
That was quick.
The current owners should be ashamed of themselves the way they’ve let this place go downhill, but they won’t.
Now, all the new owners have to do is:
1. Get rid of the gang problem
2. Do something about the deadly mold and mildewed walls in the apts and hallways
3. Hire maintenance staff that won’t steal from the residents
4. Replace the old, leaky windows and the ancient heating and cooling systems
5. Kill the mice and vermin problems
In other words, start over.
That said, if my rent goes up to “market value,” then there’s no point in me staying in this hole. I could live anywhere — including places that don’t have MS-13 problems — for insane rental costs.
IHY: you do realize that the article you linked to says that there’s been a modest increase in the median income of Americans, right? That’s kind of the opposite of “we’re getting poorer”. I agree that middle class wages haven’t risen dramatically, but that’s not the same as decreasing, even taking into account inflation.
And, yes, I agree, illegals haven’t negatively affected the middle class’ wages. They have affected the wages for the poor and unskilled - they had to, unless you’re going to try to claim that supply and demand doesn’t exist in that labor sector.
Why is it that everyone complains about about illegal immigrants “stealing money from hard-working Americans” but few people complain about outsourcing tech and other service jobs to India, China, and the Philippines? Does everyone remember all that Ross Perot hullabaloo about NAFTA?
If we outsourced jobs to Mexico, less people would want to move out of their country & if we pay illegal immigrants IN the U.S. at least they’ll spend most of their hard-earned money IN the U.S.
“few people complain about outsourcing tech and other service jobs to India, China, and the Philippines?”
Because the IT field, especially in DC, has insanely low unemployment? I decided to casually look for a new job, and I was _astonished_ at how desperate some firms are. The pay is pretty excellent, too, even with only a couple years of experience. (Java developers: DC is the place to be right now!)
Does it depress wages a bit here? Probably in terms of growth, but damned if you could tell from the current market.
DMZ…did you not see this in the article, “Experts said the rise in income was mainly a reflection of an increase in the number of family members entering the workplace or working longer hours. Average wages for men and women actually declined for the third consecutive year.”
The IT market is healthy in the DC market because of federal government spending. The US government doles out billions in projects to area IT contractors (mainly for Homeland Security, Defense, Human & Health Services). You take away the massive amounts of gubment spending on contracting firms in NoVa and Montgomery County, then we are talking a severe recession.
As for average wages dropping, yes, I missed it. Then again, that’s a national study, and not Maryland.
“You take away the massive amounts of gubment spending on contracting firms in NoVa and Montgomery County, then we are talking a severe recession.”
Well, duh. But when haven’t contractors made out like bandits? I don’t think it’ll always be quite this good, but I don’t think it’s going to drop like a stone, either. The government doesn’t turn on a dime - it can’t. Too big and ponderous.
I should add that most of that government work can’t be outsourced or offshored anyways, due to ITAR issues, so that’s not going to play so much into what we’re discussing.
I mean, I can paint some pretty gloom-and-doom estimates, but they generally aren’t what comes true. Even the current sub-prime crisis, bad as it is, doesn’t match up with some of the predictions I was hearing.
GOD IHY is that all you complain about - he has more than me blah blah blah.
Well this goes out to you - when I go home tonight I’m gonna throw out all my money on my bed and roll around - Cartman from South Park style - and say “yea all this money… yeaaaasssss”
Pennster, please be sure to write the Washington Post and the Examiner as well if we are going to keep everything “fairâ€.
There are several articles by these “free press publications†touting Fairfax and Loudon as theâ€richest counties in the Countryâ€. By your argument Howard County would be the richest County in the Country but there is no mention of this anywhere.
Another example of the one sided, bias reporting in this region.
http://www.examiner.com/a-905204~Fairfax_County_s_median_income_breaks_six_figure_mark__tops_nation.html?cid=rss-Washington_DC
Maryland topping the nation never made front page news in those papers,the only one to pick it up was the Sun and that was negative crap.
I’m sure New Jersey kept it “correct†when they topped the list. Please continue to self demonize, it’s the Maryland way.
Comment by Pennster
Made Thursday, 30 of August , 2007 at 9:20 am
Lol Rich, you are ridiculous. I don’t like skewed facts and like to get the most accurate information out there, even if it makes Maryland’s number 1 spot a tiny bit less significant. Born and raised in Silver Spring (and still living here), I am delighted that MD has taken the #1 spot but not disillusioned by the fact that statistically there is no difference between the top 2 spots. I’m not from Virginia, nor am I a Southerner so I have no idea what you’re talking about. Consider learning proper English. We don’t capitalize all nouns like Germans. Another odd response by you will be met by silence.
RE: 95% Of what you stated is FALSE, and your definitely not a True Marylander especially with the way you Negatively Criticize every Upscale Development Plans throughout PG County and Montgomery County.
If your not a Maryland Hater then Bush is a Democrat……….
The American people, taking one with another, constitute the most timorous, sniveling, poltroonish, ignominious mob of serfs and goosesteppers ever gathered under one flag in Christendom since the end of the Middle Ages.
H. L. Mencken
i agree with rich. to be honest, maryland is a pretty poor state when u exclude moco and howard. but if we remove two of teh richest states in nj: somerset and morris, we’re left with hunterdon, bergen, and monmouth…all three VERY wealthy states…so the wealth is concentrated in various areas. not all squashed into two counties like maryland.
edited_all three very wealthy counties.