An interesting observation

I saw this plaque in a very nice federal building that has been around since the early seventies.

At the time the building was built, it was located far from higher price/high cost of living area of DC, inside the beltway.

I was somewhat surprised to discover that the government actively planned on putting the building far away from the beltway to encourage the local economy and provide a manageable cost of living for the federal employees. This makes perfect sense in terms of returning value to the tax payers: jobs go where they are needed and the personnel costs are kept lower for the government (who is paying the employees), as well as the employees themselves.

Now, DC has spread out far beyond the building, so while it once was in undeveloped forests, it is now in a light industrial/office park area amidst the 'burbs. The goal of stimulating the local economy has likely been consumed by the size of the local economy, and the cost of living has gone into the upper echelon of locality pay adjustments.

Especially with the modern state of communication, it seems like locating federal installations in areas that do not have locality pay adjustments and that could use the economic benefit of having a large body of employees. Every decade or so, the location could be evaluated and changed with the cost-efficiency goals in mind.

There are, of course, limitations to the efficiency and benefit from this. I wonder what a spreadsheet model would yield?

Sounds like a nice homework assignment...