not really, those folks tend to live in Arlington (#7 richest) Loudon has the busiest internet datacenters in the world along with a lot of old money. something like 70% of US internet data flows through Loudon servers at some point each day.
Loudoun County is that wealthy because there's literally no working class there. Virtually everyone living there is a highly educated professional class person making well into six figures and beyond.
That's an excellent point that I never thought about. The other nearby counties (Fairfax, PG, Montgomery) have very wealthy communities but still have lower income communities.
That simply isn’t true. I work in Loudoun county and they absolutely do have a working class, they’re the cream of the crop and make more than a lot of college grads in other parts of the country. I know tradesmen here with college degrees too. Just had a conversation about 19th century German philosophy with a welder lol, the guy was clearly incredibly well read and that goes for a lot of people here. In general, when I go to a job site in this county I typically meet incredibly talented and smart people in every discipline. There are so many advanced infrastructure projects here too that they import a lot of these talented people to construct state of the art data centers, municipal services, logistic hubs, etc.
@@samgrattan5465 It doesn't sound like the people you described are working class if they make so much money. I think working class is generally interpreted as below middle class or even poor. I can't think of a single community in Loudoun County that is considered poor; at the very least they're middle class.
@@youngSL301I’m using “working class” in the blue vs white collar definition, not just based on how much you make. Carpentry, electricians, plumbers, construction, HVAC etc. is considered “blue collar” because you don’t require higher education to do those jobs (but they certainly require training and skill) Those jobs are usually paid a wage rather than a salary which is another big distinction. What’s unique about Loudoun co. is how much those guys can charge for their work here, allowing them to make a lot more than basically anywhere else in the country. But these guys aren’t snobby DC politicians or finance tech bros, they really are just down to earth humble people that work with their hands for a living. I’d still easily considering them working class EDIT: good rule of thumb is that if there is a well known, powerful union that most of the employees are part of, they’re working class.
I've lived on the county line my entire life between Loudoun and Fairfax. There really is a big difference between the counties, and even bigger difference between Loudoun and the rest of the country. Leaving Northern Virginia really is like leaving a bubble
I loved living in Loudoun county. Even when I was just renting a room. Now I live in South Florida and I hate it here. The difference in education, mindset, culture and civility is pretty big.
I currently live in Virginia, but I occasionally travel to or through West Virginia. It's a beautiful state with friendly, down-to-earth people. Wild, Wonderful West Virginia👍
@fewkeyfewkey5414 considering the smaller population in these towns in WV with the drug issues and comparing to larger cities where there's bound to be drug issues no matter what, I'd say WV or the Appalachians have it worse tbh.
It's the same reason why Less Developed countries are poor. There's no business or infrastructure being developed. And the people with power and influence have no desire to improve things. Or they put-in effort to make things difficult. Sometimes even the collective as a whole doesn't want to build on anything. Hence why smart people usually leave for better areas.
It’s the question of ‘if jobs should move to where the people are,’ or ‘if people should move to where the jobs are.’ The later of the two is much more economically justifiable, yet everyone wants politicians or others to bring jobs to places where naturally they wouldn’t go.
@samuelsstuffyt All true, but it that poor WV county is also just a 5 hr drive from Loudoun County. There are jobs to be had in Loudoun. Jobs that require some sort of skill but not necessarily a college diploma. And they all pay pretty well. Pack up the car (even poor Americans have cars) and move
@@bjdon99 As someone else said in this comment section, "Loudoun County is that wealthy because there's literally no working class there. Virtually everyone living there is a highly educated professional class person making well into six figures and beyond."
You didn't talk about the tech sector or education here. I'm from Fairfax. The majority of internet traffic goes through Loudon county. It's big in fiber optics and data centers. A majority of people here have a degree.
I will give any young person or anyone else that is has the opportunity this piece of advice: MOVE!! Get the hell out of there if you can. I have cousins that stayed in poor parts of my home state and there is virtually no way to make a good living there. I had to move in my 20's and the younger you are the easier it is to make a change like that.
West Virginia has long relied on resource extraction. We were slow to take that money and develop infrastructure that built the next generation economy. That said, there were initiatives that were successful. Some of our losses were parts of large trends like the loss of steel and aluminum manufacturing, loss of manufacturing to off border low wage countries. We have been behind the curve on using our universities to seed local economic development. I am happy to see the signs of manufacturing returning. My career as an Electrical Engineer was strongly impacted by the steady layoffs from closures. I have returned in retirement and hope to see state and national policy changes that help us find a better future here.
I wouldn't say WV has relied on resource extraction, so much as rich capitalists have relied on extraction from WV's natural resources, while fleeing with the wealth derived from said resources. West Virginia has been robbed for the past 150+ years.
I think there is so much similarities to other resource rich nations that failed to invest ground wealth into prosperity for all wealth. No place has really achieved this, but there has to be way to bring people closer rather than further away from each other economically. Tourism yes, but I think making states like west Virginia renewable energy farms would actually be great way to remember the past but embrace the future.
It will be interesting in a decade or so to see how much rise in wealth goes to the major counties in Texas like the ones that have Austin, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio.
its already significant since Texas ranks badly in education. The cities in and around the major metros that have the funding and tax base have alot of the better schools but even then its still spotty, and most places outside of that especially in more rural areas are pretty bad in education funding. I love Texas, dont get me wrong, but just to put it in perspective, Texas typically ranks in the bottom 5 states for education.
@@FigureFarterGeorgia is worse; we use the same name for cities and counties but put each in different places. Decatur, GA is the seat of DeKalb County just east of Atlanta, yet Decatur County (with Bainbridge I think) is near the southwestern corner of the state. Similar things going on with Madison, Douglas, Columbia, Newton, Washington, and Oglethorpe, among others.
@@DiamondKingStudios I know pretty much every county in California houses a city with the same name. Alameda, Orange, LA, San Diego, San Bernardino, Santa Clara even, you name it
As someone who moved to Loudoun to take a job with the Feds 14 yrs ago, I have to say, that it is a great place to live. A great place to raise kids. Very comfortable. Great schools. Great stores/restaurants. Great parks. Nice climate. Dog friendly. Job friendly. If you live in McDowell County and want out, move here. You won't regret it. Or if you live in the rest of the country and have any kind of skill that is in demand, and want to move to a place that has a really high standard of living, then move here. There are jobs to be had. Good paying jobs.
Not really, because you’d make a salary to afford it. The pay here is pretty good. Even people in the trades do very well and have more business than they can handle
Don't give irresponsible advice like that. I live in the DMV and have two degrees and can't get a good paying job. Where "good paying" is enough to afford a roof over my head. So I bought a house in WV so I'll have a place to go to someday.
Not to also mention that the wealthiest majority black county in the United States is PG County MD (a suburb of DC), however in the rest of the country (mostly), black people are poor and in poverty. That just goes to show how far apart this country is.
I'm from Loudoun and have been since 2014. Honestly from the outside looking in, you would probably never guess that we are the wealthiest county in the country at first glance. Yeah it's very much on the nice side of things for sure, but to me nothing about it screams/ jumps out at you about just how wealthy this place truly is. I guess it kinda helps it fly under the radar for most people, which I won't complain about.
It's not 'rich' in a Westchester County kind of way. Instead there are just about no low income areas in the whole county, and almost every housing development built (and there are lots of these breaking ground every year) are for those making above average incomes. Not super wealthy for the most part, but instead like Lake Woebegone, where everyone is above average.
I live in chantilly va (in loudon) and it’s not really that “rich” feeling. There are of course, mansions, but not far from my house there is a mobile home park and some schools in the area are awful. Not everyone here is a government worker either. In fact only one of my friends mom works in DC. The houses are pretty expensive though, I just saw a townhouse listed for 1.7 million. It really just feels like suburban America tbh.
The most I remember Chantilly is having to wait eight hours there while my father tried to negotiate a car purchase. Looks pretty affluent in these areas, with recently paved wide roads on either side of the luxury car dealerships, and sit-down restaurants surrounded by seas of parking. Doubt I could ever live there.
Jefferson county WV is considered apart of the DC metro region. So WV does benefit and often they advertise to those in the beltway to move there because it’s affordable and close by.
Jefferson County is by far the best off county in the whole state of WV. People that live there don't normally commute to DC but a lot of them commute to all the tech jobs near Dulles Airport. Lots of people from the Loudoun area move there to live and commute to the high paying jobs there.
The fact that the richest county in the country is where the Federal government is located show exactly what is wrong with this country, it's the exact opposite of what the Founders intended.
The federal government is located in Washington DC, not Loudoun County, VA. And you make a giant leap of logic that everyone works for the government. There are many corporations in the area along with research hospitals and universities. The fact that Virginia has an excellent educational system, great infrastructure and a business-friendly government is why the area is what it is. Much of Loudoun County is old money - think horse/fox hunt country that didn't make its money by working for the federal government. Lastly, much of Virginia, including Loudoun County is rural - precisely what Thomas Jefferson advocated.
@@kjquinn7856 Really? How many of the highly paid Federal employees live within the Washington DC city limits? Maybe ZERO. Why do you think all Corporations are located next to DC? Could it be the business friendly government, schools or even the weather? Ah, no, if they wanted that they would locate in Florida. The fact is they are there to influence and get hand out from the feds. That's why the area is wealthy, thanks to the taxpayers.
I moved to Loudoun County without knowing that it was the richest county in the country. They had a fundraiser at the local elementary school and raised $20k in a week. That hit different and I started asking questions.
Reminds me a lot of Bristol since it’s on the border of VA and tn my grandpa has lived there for years and he says the reason the Va side is so rich is because they were able to sell alcohol when tn could not so whenever you go to a different side things are like 2 dollars more expensive
Really? So everyone here works for the government? How wrong you are! There are plenty of corporations here and 70% of the world's internet traffic goes through the server farms in Loudoun and Fairfax counties. Perhaps you should learn a little more about an are before disparaging it.
Rules…and grants to businesses…and builds a military to keep you safe…and researches new cures for disease…and investigates crimes…and engages in diplomacy with foreign powers….and……..
Largest concentration of data centers in the world, Information & communications technology, aerospace & defense industries, health innovation and technology, agriculture/farming, wine, beer, liquor production (wineries, breweries, distilleries), horse country, and more…. We don’t produce anything, indeed.
I live in Loudoun County (since 2016-lived in Prince William County for 11 yrs before that). I’m a retired military officer (former enlisted/NCO); my wife is a senior federal govt employee. Still have one our three adult children living with us (and her long-time boyfriend/fiancé)…one of our son’s (and his longtime girlfriend) recently moved out-bought a new home in WV as they were priced out of buying locally; and we are financially supporting our other son who lives alone a couple of counties away (still in Northern VA; on the I-95 corridor) because he doesn’t earn enough to cover his living expenses. At around 16 seconds in on the video, there is a clip of Vanish Brewery-it’s literally less than 4 miles from my house.
@@bjdon99My father used to work on a winery and is now trying to help start a brewery in the area. Plenty of craft breweries in northern VA. Reminds me of seeing vineyards and hops farms on the side of the Long Island Expressway and my father telling me “all of this used to be potatoes”.
Interesting comparison. It's sad for the people, but the reality is that times change, and you cannot have economy depend solely on mining. The government in my fatherland does not understand that and they keep pumping taxpayers' money to keep coal mines alive, even though they are not profitable and cannot really be made profitable again. Rather than supporting people during the transition they kind of kick the ball down the road to avoid political unrest.
It wasn't always just mining here. We had many manufacturing operations across the state. But glass containers was lost to plastic in the 80s. Steel and Aluminum producing was lost as the country lost those as well. We stiff have chemical industries here too. Where we've struggled was to find new replacement industries. And this is not just a WV problem. Reshoring manufacturing, pursuing new industries is just now happening. I see steel mill sites reused for industrial parks like advanced battery production. But it's going to take continuous effort to make a difference. WV made the decision to produce electric power with out nuclear means. We are now reconsidering this. As fossil fuel plants age they can be replaced by nuclear and to a smaller extent we use wind too.
Yes, in states that receive more in federal funds than they pay in taxes. There is a giant transfer of wealth from blue states to red states that is often overlooked. And that's fine because we are one nation. The problem is when red state politicians vilify blue states while taking their money.
Because they wand a hand up not a hand out! They wanna work but there’s not much work out there. It’s not that West Virginia is badly governed, it’s that it’s terrain prevents much development
@@derekwest4245 dude in the east side there is farmland and everything. Sure it might get flooded once in a while but you can easily get around that with modern infrastructure.
For those outside and within West Virginia that do not look fondly on Jefferson County, West Virginia provide a positive change. How you may ask? Help us build something solid, prosperous and community based! WE NEED SMALL BUSINESSES. Specifically family owned restaurants. Tough work, I know. I own a small business. You have my personal pledge I will support you. Come to the eastern panhandle of West Virginia and help us build a grassroots community.
Fairfield county and Hartford in Connecticut: "Lets take the same stupidly rich and cripplingly poor, and then put them RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER!" (Bridgeport looks more like Chernobyl than it does like Fairfield, and they are LESS than a 10 MINIUTE DRIVE apart.)
As a GA resident, we both have a lot of people in our respective states (about 10-11 million). Honestly didn’t expect VA to have less. Sooner or later your state’s going to overtake us in population, though. Atlanta still is growing quite a bit, but I think Charlotte’s been outpacing them for a while.
Virginia has the richest, West Virginia has the poorest, so if the 2 unite, Virginia would have the richest and poorest. Also its proof the OG is better
@@kjquinn7856 Virginia, is affordable, the most patriotic state, the best income to cost of living ratio, the greatest military to civilian ratio, the most government workers, and it has really nice cities near the capital
@@jamesparson yes all that really means is the state was built around the idea that the government should be putting the people first. The fact that it is a swing state and has allot of people who want better for the country (military) gives the state a good balance of power so it doesn’t end up like a pyramid scheme like New York and California.
Time was when Fairfax, VA and Montgomery, MD vied for the title of wealthiest county. This was on the back of the first Federal Governement expansion out of DC into the suburbs, along with the associated ubiqiutous federal contractor industry. By and large, all highly educated. The 'War on Terror' released another enormous tsunami of deficit spending, following 9/11, and this led to the rise of the Defense industries and their contractors, in Loudoun, and the Spook industries and their contractors, in Howard Co, MD. Before the millennium both these counties were rural, and Leesburg was a sleepy little old town. A similar tsunami of Federal spending applied to McDowell would have a similar enriching effect. But hasn't, as it is inconveniently located.
If America restored most of the Coal mining jobs and most coal powered furnace plants and ban landfills and use waste to energy to add to the electric grid alongside of renewables. The Poverty rate would drop and unskilled jobs would drop and increase skilled jobs especially in new jobs.
I’m from the Southwestern end of Virginia and this is why I hate the northern end of the state. They don’t distribute the wealth equally amongst the whole state. They have had many opportunities to help the lower end by investing in better businesses and expanding our railroad systems but they always choose to invest money in the north.
We literally subsidize your entire lives where you are from here in NoVA, without us you would be SIGNIFICANTLY worse off than you already are. The hell do you mean we don't help you guys 😂 We give you significantly more than you give us, and it's not even close. Maybe don't bite the hand that feeds you? Just food for thought.
@@thespaldo We don’t want to be subsidized. We could very well support ourselves just fine if the north end would stop taking our business investments opportunities and convincing them that they could do better in the north end over the southern end. We have had the ability to develop our train stations out for awhile and studies show that it would greatly improve the region but the state refuse to do anything about it. Not to mention the taxes they took from us for our casino that WE BUILT, after telling us we could keep all taxes from it and then decided later on to take a huge portion of it to fund schools and other localities on the northern end.
I think you mean the affluence of Loudoun County is "almost palpable" (or maybe "almost tangible"), not "almost palatable." It's definitely not palatable.
Sure, let's cut the workers that send out the welfare checks, the social security payments, the agricultural subsidies and transportation subsidies, and so forth. Who suffers most? Red state counties like McDowell.
@@Charliesparks-mg7tt I gather you have never walked through a Federal or State government office building and saw all the employees “working”. You could get rid of half with no repercussions.
Rich counties are tiny, slightly near cities and smaller pop. Theirs way more millionaires in cook county vs dupage county in illinois but cook coounty is 5 million people. It’s all relative. All the poor counties are rural with no jobs and especially in rust belt or delta.
You wanna get rich in western countries then you better get govt cash. How many fortune 500 companies are there that do not have a single govt contract? 🤔
@Thesignofjonah777 stop bud not all of the greater DC/Richmond area inhabitants are politicians, I have been to NoVa and not all of them are politicians people gravitate to the capital making it rich as has been done in all civilizations, stop with your ignorance.
Taxes help the DC area. If Trump's plan to "Drain The Swamp" and move federal agencies outside of DC, it will negatively impact the DC area. Posting from the Washington DC area.
He (and I guess his followers) want the executive to have way more power. I understand why, but this group of people would have no right to complain if a few years from now a socialist is elected and yields the same level of unchecked power. That's what happens when you vote for something else over your freedom.
America isn't a continent though. There's North America, and there's South America. But those are two separate continents, divided down in Panama. Collectively called 'The Americas' or 'The New World' if you want to talk about them both at the same time. And America is the shorthand name for the United States of America, with 'American' being the proper endonym for citizens and other things located inside the USA.
Jesus Christ do you Latin Americans have some kind of illness that makes you obsessively comment this on every video. 1. America is a country. It's literally called the United States of America. 2. Two things can have the same name. You think you Latin Americans would be familiar with the concept given you have a million cities called San Jose, Santiago, and Monterey.
@@soupdrinker oh i know, thats the funny part. Alot of people there act like it and ignore how many people in their area rely on government assistance. Apparently helping people in need and trying to prevent a wide spread problem is a "handout".
It's so rich because that's where all the DC peripheral workers live - people like lobbyists and contractors.
Lobbyists can afford to live closer to DC. It's rich because it's amount of dual income households making $100k+ plus each
not really, those folks tend to live in Arlington (#7 richest) Loudon has the busiest internet datacenters in the world along with a lot of old money. something like 70% of US internet data flows through Loudon servers at some point each day.
Not really. Eastern LC to some degree, but most of the money is in the West, and it’s mostly old money.
@@gamespotlive3673FEMA ranked Loudon the least natural disaster prone county in the US. Definitely makes sense to have tons of data centers there.
You mean it’s rich because it’s full of leeches.
Loudoun County is that wealthy because there's literally no working class there. Virtually everyone living there is a highly educated professional class person making well into six figures and beyond.
That's an excellent point that I never thought about. The other nearby counties (Fairfax, PG, Montgomery) have very wealthy communities but still have lower income communities.
I agree with this.
It's not just about income. But the more important factor is Social Mobility.
That simply isn’t true. I work in Loudoun county and they absolutely do have a working class, they’re the cream of the crop and make more than a lot of college grads in other parts of the country.
I know tradesmen here with college degrees too. Just had a conversation about 19th century German philosophy with a welder lol, the guy was clearly incredibly well read and that goes for a lot of people here.
In general, when I go to a job site in this county I typically meet incredibly talented and smart people in every discipline. There are so many advanced infrastructure projects here too that they import a lot of these talented people to construct state of the art data centers, municipal services, logistic hubs, etc.
@@samgrattan5465 It doesn't sound like the people you described are working class if they make so much money. I think working class is generally interpreted as below middle class or even poor. I can't think of a single community in Loudoun County that is considered poor; at the very least they're middle class.
@@youngSL301I’m using “working class” in the blue vs white collar definition, not just based on how much you make. Carpentry, electricians, plumbers, construction, HVAC etc. is considered “blue collar” because you don’t require higher education to do those jobs (but they certainly require training and skill)
Those jobs are usually paid a wage rather than a salary which is another big distinction.
What’s unique about Loudoun co. is how much those guys can charge for their work here, allowing them to make a lot more than basically anywhere else in the country.
But these guys aren’t snobby DC politicians or finance tech bros, they really are just down to earth humble people that work with their hands for a living. I’d still easily considering them working class
EDIT: good rule of thumb is that if there is a well known, powerful union that most of the employees are part of, they’re working class.
I've lived on the county line my entire life between Loudoun and Fairfax. There really is a big difference between the counties, and even bigger difference between Loudoun and the rest of the country. Leaving Northern Virginia really is like leaving a bubble
I agree. I have been in Loudoun for 14 yrs now. To me it's like living in the Emerald City of Oz. Or Lake Woebegon. Everyone is above average.
@@bjdon99been here 8 years now, honestly its stifling
I loved living in Loudoun county. Even when I was just renting a room. Now I live in South Florida and I hate it here. The difference in education, mindset, culture and civility is pretty big.
I can somewhat attest to this. I go to Montgomery County maybe 3 times a year, and the D.C. suburbs are insanely wealthy.
I currently live in Virginia, but I occasionally travel to or through West Virginia. It's a beautiful state with friendly, down-to-earth people. Wild, Wonderful West Virginia👍
Got a bad drug problem unfortunately.
Best state
@@baneofbanesyea it does but some cities in general has it worse
@@fewkeyfewkey5414 have you ever been the Appalachians?
@fewkeyfewkey5414 considering the smaller population in these towns in WV with the drug issues and comparing to larger cities where there's bound to be drug issues no matter what, I'd say WV or the Appalachians have it worse tbh.
It's the same reason why Less Developed countries are poor.
There's no business or infrastructure being developed. And the people with power and influence have no desire to improve things. Or they put-in effort to make things difficult.
Sometimes even the collective as a whole doesn't want to build on anything. Hence why smart people usually leave for better areas.
It’s the question of ‘if jobs should move to where the people are,’ or ‘if people should move to where the jobs are.’ The later of the two is much more economically justifiable, yet everyone wants politicians or others to bring jobs to places where naturally they wouldn’t go.
@@bjdon99 A question that’s generally better solved by owning the jobs in question.
@@bjdon99 people like where they grow up.
@samuelsstuffyt All true, but it that poor WV county is also just a 5 hr drive from Loudoun County. There are jobs to be had in Loudoun. Jobs that require some sort of skill but not necessarily a college diploma. And they all pay pretty well. Pack up the car (even poor Americans have cars) and move
@@bjdon99 As someone else said in this comment section, "Loudoun County is that wealthy because there's literally no working class there. Virtually everyone living there is a highly educated professional class person making well into six figures and beyond."
You didn't talk about the tech sector or education here. I'm from Fairfax. The majority of internet traffic goes through Loudon county. It's big in fiber optics and data centers. A majority of people here have a degree.
I will give any young person or anyone else that is has the opportunity this piece of advice: MOVE!! Get the hell out of there if you can. I have cousins that stayed in poor parts of my home state and there is virtually no way to make a good living there. I had to move in my 20's and the younger you are the easier it is to make a change like that.
West Virginia has long relied on resource extraction. We were slow to take that money and develop infrastructure that built the next generation economy. That said, there were initiatives that were successful. Some of our losses were parts of large trends like the loss of steel and aluminum manufacturing, loss of manufacturing to off border low wage countries. We have been behind the curve on using our universities to seed local economic development. I am happy to see the signs of manufacturing returning. My career as an Electrical Engineer was strongly impacted by the steady layoffs from closures. I have returned in retirement and hope to see state and national policy changes that help us find a better future here.
It's more expensive than other states to invest in due to the geography. It makes it essentially never going to be anything other than poor.
The coal companies and their corruption ruined the area.
I wouldn't say WV has relied on resource extraction, so much as rich capitalists have relied on extraction from WV's natural resources, while fleeing with the wealth derived from said resources. West Virginia has been robbed for the past 150+ years.
Encouraging
I think there is so much similarities to other resource rich nations that failed to invest ground wealth into prosperity for all wealth. No place has really achieved this, but there has to be way to bring people closer rather than further away from each other economically. Tourism yes, but I think making states like west Virginia renewable energy farms would actually be great way to remember the past but embrace the future.
Median is over $750K. That’s insane. Housing is way too expensive.
Twice the cost of just TWO COUNTIES OVER into Berkeley County, West Virginia
I don't think you heard, it's very cheap the next county over.
It will be interesting in a decade or so to see how much rise in wealth goes to the major counties in Texas like the ones that have Austin, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio.
Us 50
its already significant since Texas ranks badly in education. The cities in and around the major metros that have the funding and tax base have alot of the better schools but even then its still spotty, and most places outside of that especially in more rural areas are pretty bad in education funding. I love Texas, dont get me wrong, but just to put it in perspective, Texas typically ranks in the bottom 5 states for education.
Travis, Harris, Dallas, Terrance, and Bexar. I've always wondered why Dallas is also a county and city name
@@FigureFarterGeorgia is worse; we use the same name for cities and counties but put each in different places.
Decatur, GA is the seat of DeKalb County just east of Atlanta, yet Decatur County (with Bainbridge I think) is near the southwestern corner of the state. Similar things going on with Madison, Douglas, Columbia, Newton, Washington, and Oglethorpe, among others.
@@DiamondKingStudios I know pretty much every county in California houses a city with the same name. Alameda, Orange, LA, San Diego, San Bernardino, Santa Clara even, you name it
Damn… can’t even get a Walmart in McDowell
As someone who moved to Loudoun to take a job with the Feds 14 yrs ago, I have to say, that it is a great place to live. A great place to raise kids. Very comfortable. Great schools. Great stores/restaurants. Great parks. Nice climate. Dog friendly. Job friendly.
If you live in McDowell County and want out, move here. You won't regret it. Or if you live in the rest of the country and have any kind of skill that is in demand, and want to move to a place that has a really high standard of living, then move here. There are jobs to be had. Good paying jobs.
Housing is just too expensive for someone from McDowell to move.
Not really, because you’d make a salary to afford it. The pay here is pretty good. Even people in the trades do very well and have more business than they can handle
Don't give irresponsible advice like that. I live in the DMV and have two degrees and can't get a good paying job. Where "good paying" is enough to afford a roof over my head. So I bought a house in WV so I'll have a place to go to someday.
Compare how these 2 counties voted before 20 years ago, to how they vote now.
1868-1928:VA is blue, WV is red
1932-1996:VA is red, WV is blue
2000-:VA is blue, WV is red
@@breaderikthegreat3224he said counties not states
Not to also mention that the wealthiest majority black county in the United States is PG County MD (a suburb of DC), however in the rest of the country (mostly), black people are poor and in poverty. That just goes to show how far apart this country is.
Rich men north of Richmond
Great video, i like the lack of bis, while painting a straightforward picture of the circumstances.
I'm from Loudoun and have been since 2014. Honestly from the outside looking in, you would probably never guess that we are the wealthiest county in the country at first glance. Yeah it's very much on the nice side of things for sure, but to me nothing about it screams/ jumps out at you about just how wealthy this place truly is. I guess it kinda helps it fly under the radar for most people, which I won't complain about.
It's not 'rich' in a Westchester County kind of way. Instead there are just about no low income areas in the whole county, and almost every housing development built (and there are lots of these breaking ground every year) are for those making above average incomes. Not super wealthy for the most part, but instead like Lake Woebegone, where everyone is above average.
I live in chantilly va (in loudon) and it’s not really that “rich” feeling. There are of course, mansions, but not far from my house there is a mobile home park and some schools in the area are awful. Not everyone here is a government worker either. In fact only one of my friends mom works in DC. The houses are pretty expensive though, I just saw a townhouse listed for 1.7 million. It really just feels like suburban America tbh.
Chantilly is pretty solidly in Fairfax County, though.
The most I remember Chantilly is having to wait eight hours there while my father tried to negotiate a car purchase. Looks pretty affluent in these areas, with recently paved wide roads on either side of the luxury car dealerships, and sit-down restaurants surrounded by seas of parking. Doubt I could ever live there.
My dad lives pretty close to Loudoun (he lives in McLean) and Loudoun is just uniformly upper middle class.
Jefferson county WV is considered apart of the DC metro region. So WV does benefit and often they advertise to those in the beltway to move there because it’s affordable and close by.
Jefferson County is by far the best off county in the whole state of WV. People that live there don't normally commute to DC but a lot of them commute to all the tech jobs near Dulles Airport. Lots of people from the Loudoun area move there to live and commute to the high paying jobs there.
The fact that the richest county in the country is where the Federal government is located show exactly what is wrong with this country, it's the exact opposite of what the Founders intended.
The federal government is located in Washington DC, not Loudoun County, VA. And you make a giant leap of logic that everyone works for the government. There are many corporations in the area along with research hospitals and universities. The fact that Virginia has an excellent educational system, great infrastructure and a business-friendly government is why the area is what it is. Much of Loudoun County is old money - think horse/fox hunt country that didn't make its money by working for the federal government.
Lastly, much of Virginia, including Loudoun County is rural - precisely what Thomas Jefferson advocated.
@@kjquinn7856 Really? How many of the highly paid Federal employees live within the Washington DC city limits? Maybe ZERO. Why do you think all Corporations are located next to DC? Could it be the business friendly government, schools or even the weather? Ah, no, if they wanted that they would locate in Florida. The fact is they are there to influence and get hand out from the feds. That's why the area is wealthy, thanks to the taxpayers.
It’s because it has a African American majority so it became super wealthy.
The Founding fathers were among the richest men in the nation.
@@kjquinn7856And the corporations and universities are there because of? But a point you mentioned is that Loudon County has an absurd cost of living.
The title of the video uses the wrong "its"
Many Jefferson Co and Berkeley Co residents in WV commute to DC, you can get to the white house within 90 minutes
I moved to Loudoun County without knowing that it was the richest county in the country. They had a fundraiser at the local elementary school and raised $20k in a week. That hit different and I started asking questions.
Reminds me a lot of Bristol since it’s on the border of VA and tn my grandpa has lived there for years and he says the reason the Va side is so rich is because they were able to sell alcohol when tn could not so whenever you go to a different side things are like 2 dollars more expensive
I thought it was afghanistan and pakistan in the thumbnail
they should fight
No why they should
Virginia is the Queen of states, I hope our flag never changes, virginia is best state to ever be, only bad thing is it can be random sometimes
The weather is the bad thing always changing
That's what weather does.. @@Fallen45627
the flag kinda sucks
@@TheForestor The flag is good, the seal represents American history, and those vexatologist "rules" are stupid, 'sob' are good flags too
Well, they say Virginia is for lovers.
When you think about it, it’s sad that one of the wealthiest areas (metro DC) produces nothing except for rules for the rest of the country.
Really? So everyone here works for the government? How wrong you are! There are plenty of corporations here and 70% of the world's internet traffic goes through the server farms in Loudoun and Fairfax counties. Perhaps you should learn a little more about an are before disparaging it.
Rules…and grants to businesses…and builds a military to keep you safe…and researches new cures for disease…and investigates crimes…and engages in diplomacy with foreign powers….and……..
Largest concentration of data centers in the world, Information & communications technology, aerospace & defense industries, health innovation and technology, agriculture/farming, wine, beer, liquor production (wineries, breweries, distilleries), horse country, and more…. We don’t produce anything, indeed.
@@mr-vet All government dependent/funded
@@kjquinn7856 Mostly government contractors
I live in Loudoun County (since 2016-lived in Prince William County for 11 yrs before that). I’m a retired military officer (former enlisted/NCO); my wife is a senior federal govt employee. Still have one our three adult children living with us (and her long-time boyfriend/fiancé)…one of our son’s (and his longtime girlfriend) recently moved out-bought a new home in WV as they were priced out of buying locally; and we are financially supporting our other son who lives alone a couple of counties away (still in Northern VA; on the I-95 corridor) because he doesn’t earn enough to cover his living expenses.
At around 16 seconds in on the video, there is a clip of Vanish Brewery-it’s literally less than 4 miles from my house.
The beer and wine vineyard scene in Loudoun is one of the nicer perks of living here.
@@bjdon99My father used to work on a winery and is now trying to help start a brewery in the area. Plenty of craft breweries in northern VA. Reminds me of seeing vineyards and hops farms on the side of the Long Island Expressway and my father telling me “all of this used to be potatoes”.
The richest county is subsidized by the rest of the country because they're all federal workers
Federal workers pay taxes and support local economies.
Interesting comparison. It's sad for the people, but the reality is that times change, and you cannot have economy depend solely on mining. The government in my fatherland does not understand that and they keep pumping taxpayers' money to keep coal mines alive, even though they are not profitable and cannot really be made profitable again. Rather than supporting people during the transition they kind of kick the ball down the road to avoid political unrest.
It wasn't always just mining here. We had many manufacturing operations across the state. But glass containers was lost to plastic in the 80s. Steel and Aluminum producing was lost as the country lost those as well. We stiff have chemical industries here too. Where we've struggled was to find new replacement industries. And this is not just a WV problem. Reshoring manufacturing, pursuing new industries is just now happening. I see steel mill sites reused for industrial parks like advanced battery production. But it's going to take continuous effort to make a difference.
WV made the decision to produce electric power with out nuclear means. We are now reconsidering this. As fossil fuel plants age they can be replaced by nuclear and to a smaller extent we use wind too.
@@gregkocher5352 that's great. Hope the tides will change. I like this part of the country. I love mountains and small hidden in the valleys.
It is truly sad. And this isn't the only example.
I think everyone should read the glass castle, it really tells the story of Welch
I'm always impressed when I see crows fly apart.
The poorest areas appear to be almost all in the conservative states!
Yes, in states that receive more in federal funds than they pay in taxes. There is a giant transfer of wealth from blue states to red states that is often overlooked. And that's fine because we are one nation. The problem is when red state politicians vilify blue states while taking their money.
Because they wand a hand up not a hand out! They wanna work but there’s not much work out there. It’s not that West Virginia is badly governed, it’s that it’s terrain prevents much development
To be fair West Virginia is pretty hard to develop but there are not much excuses for places like Mississippi and Arkansas
@@aidenp.1000 apparently you’ve never been to Arkansas. Very mountainous in the west and very marshy in the east
@@derekwest4245 dude in the east side there is farmland and everything. Sure it might get flooded once in a while but you can easily get around that with modern infrastructure.
For those outside and within West Virginia that do not look fondly on Jefferson County, West Virginia provide a positive change. How you may ask? Help us build something solid, prosperous and community based! WE NEED SMALL BUSINESSES. Specifically family owned restaurants. Tough work, I know. I own a small business. You have my personal pledge I will support you. Come to the eastern panhandle of West Virginia and help us build a grassroots community.
Odd that until recently both were solid Dem.
Fairfield county and Hartford in Connecticut: "Lets take the same stupidly rich and cripplingly poor, and then put them RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER!"
(Bridgeport looks more like Chernobyl than it does like Fairfield, and they are LESS than a 10 MINIUTE DRIVE apart.)
Reminder. W. VA was part of VA before the Civil War.
Eastern Virginia for Harris/Waltz. Vote blue.
As a North Carolinian, I honestly didn't know we had more people than Virginia, or even Virginia and West Virginia combined.
As a GA resident, we both have a lot of people in our respective states (about 10-11 million). Honestly didn’t expect VA to have less.
Sooner or later your state’s going to overtake us in population, though. Atlanta still is growing quite a bit, but I think Charlotte’s been outpacing them for a while.
@@DiamondKingStudios yeah, Charlotte and Raleigh are growing like crazy.
Virginia has the richest, West Virginia has the poorest, so if the 2 unite, Virginia would have the richest and poorest. Also its proof the OG is better
The craziest part is that this is not a 10 hour long video
@deleted-something A credit to the channel IMO :)
Unpopular opinion Virginia is the greatest state in the country.
Virginia has excellent schools and universities, excellent infrastructure and commercial laws which encourage business plus the state is beautiful.
@@kjquinn7856 Virginia, is affordable, the most patriotic state, the best income to cost of living ratio, the greatest military to civilian ratio, the most government workers, and it has really nice cities near the capital
Isn't it a commonwealth?
@@thehab562 I would never live in Virginia because of the flag alone. I would never want to be under a flag that CONVEYS toplessness.
@@jamesparson yes all that really means is the state was built around the idea that the government should be putting the people first. The fact that it is a swing state and has allot of people who want better for the country (military) gives the state a good balance of power so it doesn’t end up like a pyramid scheme like New York and California.
Just 40 years ago, richest county voted red and poorest county voted blue.Exact opposite of today.
im pretty sure steve harvey was born there
I wonder what the crime difference is between mcdowell county and west baltimore
"Good" coal jobs
Fr barely any money and 15 lung diseases doesn't sound like a good Job
And coal peaked in like 1916. West Virginia is the only state to have lost people since the 1950s. The coal train left the station a LONG time ago.
Loudoun County isn’t inside the beltway.
Time was when Fairfax, VA and Montgomery, MD vied for the title of wealthiest county. This was on the back of the first Federal Governement expansion out of DC into the suburbs, along with the associated ubiqiutous federal contractor industry. By and large, all highly educated. The 'War on Terror' released another enormous tsunami of deficit spending, following 9/11, and this led to the rise of the Defense industries and their contractors, in Loudoun, and the Spook industries and their contractors, in Howard Co, MD. Before the millennium both these counties were rural, and Leesburg was a sleepy little old town.
A similar tsunami of Federal spending applied to McDowell would have a similar enriching effect. But hasn't, as it is inconveniently located.
If America restored most of the Coal mining jobs and most coal powered furnace plants and ban landfills and use waste to energy to add to the electric grid alongside of renewables. The Poverty rate would drop and unskilled jobs would drop and increase skilled jobs especially in new jobs.
coal is not coming back, looking to the past will not solve anything
adapt or die, we must evolve with the future
We could also just outlaw tractors and ask people to manual labor. We'd have so many more jobs!
I’m from the Southwestern end of Virginia and this is why I hate the northern end of the state. They don’t distribute the wealth equally amongst the whole state. They have had many opportunities to help the lower end by investing in better businesses and expanding our railroad systems but they always choose to invest money in the north.
How about actual wealth redistribution instead of “business investment?”
We literally subsidize your entire lives where you are from here in NoVA, without us you would be SIGNIFICANTLY worse off than you already are. The hell do you mean we don't help you guys 😂 We give you significantly more than you give us, and it's not even close. Maybe don't bite the hand that feeds you? Just food for thought.
@@thespaldo lol that’s because the wealth in this country goes to defense contractors.
@@thespaldo We don’t want to be subsidized. We could very well support ourselves just fine if the north end would stop taking our business investments opportunities and convincing them that they could do better in the north end over the southern end. We have had the ability to develop our train stations out for awhile and studies show that it would greatly improve the region but the state refuse to do anything about it. Not to mention the taxes they took from us for our casino that WE BUILT, after telling us we could keep all taxes from it and then decided later on to take a huge portion of it to fund schools and other localities on the northern end.
I think you mean the affluence of Loudoun County is "almost palpable" (or maybe "almost tangible"), not "almost palatable." It's definitely not palatable.
This is correct
I don’t know where you’re pulling your data from for the map of the 20 most impoverished counties, but it appears to be off. Source please?
I’m still a ride or die for WV !
It must be good to feed on the taxpayer teat. Imagine if the size of the federal government is actually cut.
Sure, let's cut the workers that send out the welfare checks, the social security payments, the agricultural subsidies and transportation subsidies, and so forth. Who suffers most? Red state counties like McDowell.
@@Charliesparks-mg7tt I gather you have never walked through a Federal or State government office building and saw all the employees “working”. You could get rid of half with no repercussions.
All red counties.
Rich counties are tiny, slightly near cities and smaller pop. Theirs way more millionaires in cook county vs dupage county in illinois but cook coounty is 5 million people. It’s all relative. All the poor counties are rural with no jobs and especially in rust belt or delta.
It’s adjacent to where all the money stolen from the entire country goes, go figure.
We love you, West Virginia!
Loudoun is so smug. The people are cold and transient.
i’ve heard about welch from “the glass castle” great book and movie. the way it’s described sounds like a third world country.
actually I believe arlington county and howard countyMD are richer than loudoun
Oglala Lakota county in SD is the poorest county in the USA
My state 🤩
why dont the poor people rebel
They have no money to protest
Yes I agree with you
Loudoun county has found continuous war and genocide to be quite the windfall.
Big government
You wanna get rich in western countries then you better get govt cash.
How many fortune 500 companies are there that do not have a single govt contract? 🤔
How many f500 companies dont have a government contract period? How many of those dont want a government contract?
You must be from an eastern country.
@@thrackl3 nice dodge. So what fortune 500 company did you come up with?
Keep ignoring the real poorest counties in the US colonies of Samoa and PR
That’s a good point, I will work on a video that looks like how life if different for U.S territories
Stafford county is 2nd
8/10 richest counties surround DC
I think it’s “only” 5/10 (Loudoun, Fairfax, Arlington, Montgomery and Howard.)
@@bjdon99 Still a terrible number 👍
@thesignofjonah777 how is that terrible that's just how the world works.
@@Chance_Rice politicians are able to invest in the stock market still. That’s why their rich
@Thesignofjonah777 stop bud not all of the greater DC/Richmond area inhabitants are politicians, I have been to NoVa and not all of them are politicians people gravitate to the capital making it rich as has been done in all civilizations, stop with your ignorance.
Palpable.
Palpable not palatable
Thank you, I noticed that as well
Taxes help the DC area. If Trump's plan to "Drain The Swamp" and move federal agencies outside of DC, it will negatively impact the DC area. Posting from the Washington DC area.
Good. We need less agents
He (and I guess his followers) want the executive to have way more power. I understand why, but this group of people would have no right to complain if a few years from now a socialist is elected and yields the same level of unchecked power. That's what happens when you vote for something else over your freedom.
late-stage capital
First
Hmmm can we examine the reasons why these differences are so stark? The Appalachians have been stolen from for hundreds of years.
America is a continent, not a country
America isn't a continent though. There's North America, and there's South America. But those are two separate continents, divided down in Panama. Collectively called 'The Americas' or 'The New World' if you want to talk about them both at the same time. And America is the shorthand name for the United States of America, with 'American' being the proper endonym for citizens and other things located inside the USA.
Jesus Christ do you Latin Americans have some kind of illness that makes you obsessively comment this on every video.
1. America is a country. It's literally called the United States of America.
2. Two things can have the same name. You think you Latin Americans would be familiar with the concept given you have a million cities called San Jose, Santiago, and Monterey.
No lol America is a country north America is a continent
Sorry, gringos can't understand... 🤷♂
Americas not America, Americas is both continent, America or United States is a country
🎶The Rich men north of Richmond 🎶
You don't understand that song lmao, the capital is rich because people gravitate to it as has been with every civilization ever
crappy song, the most amateur of lyrics
@@magneto44 liberal
Disgusting, the rich county should donate to the W VA one.
Why?? the people in those WVA county's don't believe in "handouts"
What I find crazy is both theses counties are part of the Virginias shows how different they are
Virginia already does! It gets back less in federal government services than it pays in taxes.
@@diodelvino3048Yes they do. They are one of the top recipients of handouts
@@soupdrinker oh i know, thats the funny part. Alot of people there act like it and ignore how many people in their area rely on government assistance. Apparently helping people in need and trying to prevent a wide spread problem is a "handout".
ترجمه الئ العربيه
Rich men north of Richmond