One of the biggest problems is that GS pay scale is sh!t and not at all competitive with private enterprise. Consequently you get the idiots at Lockheed, Raytheon, GD, Boeing, Booz Allen, etc. with a revolving door with incompetent govies who both award the contracts and get paid to capture them. But itâ(TM)s the only way they can make any money. The sad thing is my college hires with CS degrees make as much or more than a GS15 and mid level developers or engineers make more than an SES career exec who must leave to work for a Beltway bandit to get paid.

I live in Ashburn, VA and nobody gives a shit that data centers arenâ(TM)t huge employers. Overall they are net positive, even with tax breaks because power lines and fiber are the cheapest and least disruptive infrastructure. Lots of employees mean more roads, schools, hospitals, etc which cost the county far more than the revenue generated by large employers and the requisite low-cost housing. In our relatively wealthy area, a new house needs to be to be at least ~$800k to be net positive in terms of tax revenue vs infrastructure cost, and even with an average household income of ~$150k in the county building only houses that hit that price point is problematic.

Home and office in 20147 â" youâ(TM)re absolutely correct about some of the new buildings. Driving down Loudoun County Parkway and Waxpool everyday makes me forget the scale until I go somewhere else â" most buildings arenâ(TM)t a quarter mile long except here. Ashburn has big buildings, but what makes it unique is that none are particularly big individually, but there are SO MANY OF THEM.