Howard County, home of Columbia, Ellicott City and Elkridge, had the third-highest median income of any big locality in the nation, according to Census data that came out this week: $94,260 per household. That means half Howard County's families made more than that last year; half made less. Virginia's Fairfax County was first, at $100,318. Virginia's Louden County was second, at $99,371. (See post below on what's causing this: the homeland security boondoggle in Washington, the big federal deficits and all the tax dollars being vacuumed in from places like Nebraska and Michigan and being showered around the DC region.) Baltimore City, by contrast, had median income last year of $36,031.

But Howard County isn't really rich. Not Greenwich, Conn., or Beverly Hills, Calif., rich. Not Bill Gates rich, and not Warren Buffett rich. Howard County ranks high on the wealth charts because it has lots of households taking home $100,000 or $300,000 a year -- and hardly any poor people. In the 2000 Census fewer than 3 percent of Howard County's families were below the poverty line. Greenwich and Beverly Hills, on the other hand, are in jurisdictions with many poor families that pull down the median income. Howard County is an ethnically diverse but economically homogeneous swath of striving, upper-middle class burghers -- but nowhere near being filthy, Palm Beach rich. My guess is that the Columbia Mall Nordstrom's is not high on the profitability list of that department-store chain's stores.