Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

The Chinese government is highly automated, and the Indian government is getting there. They already issue electronic passports and visas. I don't think the US is able to do that yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

Salaries and benefits to federal employees are not 30% of the GDP. Obviously.

Around one percent of GDP, and that PP is a liar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

Salaries and benefits to federal employees are not 30% of the GDP. Obviously.

Obviously...other people don't think so.

I mean...seriously...you think Trump and the world's richest man are doing this for fun? :rolleyes:

NP here. Two things:
1) they are not doing this for fun. They are doing this to eliminate the apolitical civil service that protects the public from swindlers and defends our country from malign foreign actors. Trump and Musk want to be free to swindle the public and sell us out to hostile foreign governments. Hence the attacks on agencies that regulate the behavior of their own companies and that protect us from Putin.

2) it is fascinating that PP thinks what he/she perceives is just as valid as what is actually real. Didn't Arendt have something to say about people who can't tell truth from fiction and their ripeness for totalitarian takeover? We are so screwed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1.5 million people lost their job in like a 60 day period in Financial Crisis and I dont recall anyone in Govt caring

114 million people lost their job in 2020 due to Covid and I dont recall govt workers caring.

I was out of work in Covid with two kids in college laid off and I recall govt workers on the block throwing parties, going to their beach house, sleeping in late swimming in their pool getting full pay for doing nothing all day.

Even if every Fed lost their job there are only 2 million. A rounding error compared to Covid or Financial Crisis.

I realize this is a fact less post, but I know 0 Feds who have beach homes or swimming pools, unless the homes were inherited from families, or the pools are attached to older homes acquired before Covid. Feds are generally the poorer families in the dinky homes.

Not. Even. Close.

You guys have a cushy job with a cushy retirement with a sweet pension.

Try hustling at $20/hr.

Anonymous wrote:1.5 million people lost their job in like a 60 day period in Financial Crisis and I dont recall anyone in Govt caring

114 million people lost their job in 2020 due to Covid and I dont recall govt workers caring.

I was out of work in Covid with two kids in college laid off and I recall govt workers on the block throwing parties, going to their beach house, sleeping in late swimming in their pool getting full pay for doing nothing all day.

Even if every Fed lost their job there are only 2 million. A rounding error compared to Covid or Financial Crisis.

I realize this is a fact less post, but I know 0 Feds who have beach homes or swimming pools, unless the homes were inherited from families, or the pools are attached to older homes acquired before Covid. Feds are generally the poorer families in the dinky homes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

Salaries and benefits to federal employees are not 30% of the GDP. Obviously.

Obviously...other people don't think so.

I mean...seriously...you think Trump and the world's richest man are doing this for fun? :rolleyes:

I’m sorry what?? You think federal salaries are 30% if GDP? Really?

Of course not. The Fed overall is ~30% of GDP. Whatever the payroll levels are "obviously" perceived as too high, otherwise we wouldn't be where we are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

Salaries and benefits to federal employees are not 30% of the GDP. Obviously.

Obviously...other people don't think so.

I mean...seriously...you think Trump and the world's richest man are doing this for fun? :rolleyes:

I’m sorry what?? You think federal salaries are 30% if GDP? Really?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

Salaries and benefits to federal employees are not 30% of the GDP. Obviously.

Obviously...other people don't think so.

I mean...seriously...you think Trump and the world's richest man are doing this for fun? :rolleyes:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

Salaries and benefits to federal employees are not 30% of the GDP. Obviously.

NP here. That PP has no idea what they're talking about.

You can't just divide all government spending by GDP to determine what percentage of GDP is money spent by the government. One key reason is that transfer payments, like Social Security and Medicare, don't count towards GDP calculations but they do count towards government spending. Since Medicare and Social Security are about 1/3 of government spending, including those in the (incorrect) calculation PP did above substantially overstates the percentage of GDP attributable to government spending.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

Salaries and benefits to federal employees are not 30% of the GDP. Obviously.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

More BS.

Indian and Chinese populations are >4x the population of United States, and they are nowhere near as automated in the govt as we are. They should employ more people.

"US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations" - Not even close. The US Fed is ~30% of the annual GDP. And we're a >$20T economy. We're a LONG ways from cheap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not like industry layoffs. They are dismantling your government. You may not care about federal employees as individuals but I am surprised at the lack of concern about what this means.

Most Feds will find employment, perhaps not in the cities they are in at the current moment, but the longer term problem is the brain drain.

I think a great many people feel the federal government is substantially bloated and don’t view it the same way as you.

Often the same people who complain when they are on hold at SS or their refund does not arrive promptly or their highway does not get needed repairs...

But isn’t that the point? Feds are the largest employer in the world and nothing is efficient. It shouldn’t take a year to review SSDI. It shouldn’t take 20 years to extend the Silver line to IAD.

But it does and it did. Obviously the bloat isn’t making things better. Time to take another tack.

Both the Indian and Chinese governments employ far more people than the US government. A friend who is an economist tells me that the US federal sector is relatively cheap compared to other western nations, mostly because a large part of US government workers are in low-paying jobs (airport screeners, phone answerers, forest firefighters, etc.).

In my experience it takes a long time to review paperwork in the US because to avoid lawsuits most paperwork being shared with the public gets reviewed by multiple people and often by multiple attorneys.

Anonymous wrote:Elder care? Could be affected by Medicaid cuts but the demand for the services will always be there. Chronically understaffed and the squeeze on immigrants is making labor shortages even worse. Not glamorous, not well paying but would serve a critical need in our society.

This will be completely undone by Medicaid cuts.

Anonymous wrote:Elder care? Could be affected by Medicaid cuts but the demand for the services will always be there. Chronically understaffed and the squeeze on immigrants is making labor shortages even worse. Not glamorous, not well paying but would serve a critical need in our society.

Elder care is going to be your demented parent living with you so you can't work.

Elder care? Could be affected by Medicaid cuts but the demand for the services will always be there. Chronically understaffed and the squeeze on immigrants is making labor shortages even worse. Not glamorous, not well paying but would serve a critical need in our society.