Sob stories about federal apparatchiks – workers is an inappropriate term in that it suggests something worth doing is being done – who’ve been fired by the new boss in town are all over the Internet, social media and the dinosaur media.
But should anyone who works for a living be sobbing – or cheering?
Consider the one inarguable difference between an apparatchik and a worker: The latter must earn his living, meaning he must persuade others that his work has value. He has no power to force anyone to pay him. This means the work he does must be considered worth doing by the people who pay him to do it. This is honest work – whatever form it takes – because no one is forced to pay for the work.
Now consider the apparatchik.
This is a person who takes his living, via force. Because people are forced to deal with such people – as for example at the DMV. What they have to offer almost no on wants but everyone is forced to pay for, regardless.
Would the DMV remain a going concern were it not for the force? Would “customers” – as the DMV obnoxiously describes the people forced to queue up for “services” they don’t want much less need – continue to queue up were they not forced to queue up? 
How about the legions of apparatchiks recently fired by the president? How many would collect a check were it not for the force?
The apparatchik pretends, of course, that he is like honest people and is just getting paid. He personally has not shoved a pistol under the chin of anyone. It does not mean that what he takes was not taken by the threat of exactly that by some other party. All it allows is for the apparatchik to evade the knowledge that he is both a thief and a parasite – as well as a coward. One lacking the honesty of a tick sucking the blood of a dog directly and unashamedly.
Attending their moral cowardice is an appalling sense of haughty entitlement. That they are owed a living by those forced to provide it.
The apparatchik inverts the sound relationship of the free market in which people owe only when they contract a debt, as for services rendered. Services they choose to avail themselves of that are of value to them.
I recently paid an electrician to help me sort out a problem with the generator panel in my house. He came to my house because I asked him to come – and he came because he agreed to come. No force was involved on either side. I then agreed – happily – to pay the man for his time and expertise because both were worth paying for. He did not have any power to coerce me to pay and – more to the point – coercion was unnecessary, because I wanted to pay him for his services.
And – this is important – my neighbor did not get a bill for the electrician’s services. 
Most people who work for a living understand that they must produce something others consider valuable, the defining attribute of which being that others are willing to give the worker money for producing or for doing.
The apparatchik’s mentality that they are somehow “owed” a paycheck whether the people forced to finance it want to pay for the “services” of the apparatchik is alien to people who work to earn an honest living. It is degrading, too – for it turn the relationship from one of free people choosing to contract with one another into masters and slaves. For what else is it when you can be forced to work for someone else’s benefit? Is that not exactly what it is when you are forced to pay for government “workers,” as they like to think of themselves?
And it is worse than these “workers” merely believing they are “owed” a living by those forced to pay it. The apparatchik invariably thinks highly of his “services,” irrespective of the value placed on them by those forced to pay for them. Consider the for-instance of the people who “work” in government schools as well as the government-schooling apparats at the federal and state/local level. They demand never-ending increases in the taxes people are forced to pay because they are not being paid enough.
More finely, they are not being paid enough to their liking. You’ll find out how much more they need when you get your next property tax bill.
In the free market – what’s left of it – people who work for a living who want to earn more must either work more or find a way to make their work more valuable such that those who choose to pay them are willing to pay them more. There is no attitude of entitlement to other people’s money. The obnoxious self-importance is lacking. They do not protest with placards – because they’re too busy working to earn their living.
When you see apparatchiks protesting with placards you are not seeing people trying to persuade other people that their work is valuable and worth paying for. People whose work is valuable do not need to protest because their work is valuable. Ask a competent electrician or roofer or anyone else who is capable of doing an honest day’s work.
There is never lack of work for honest workers.
So, no tears for the poor apparatchiks. Most of whom take more money (from us) than most of us earn.
Keep in mind, also, that most of these apparatchiks declared themselves – meaning, their paychecks – “essential” during the late mass hysteria event. They were inoculated from the consequences of the hysteria they benefitted from, as always, at our expense.
The final point is this: If the “work” the apparatchiks do is so valuable – as they always insist it is – then why the sob stories? It ought to be easy to find well-paid work in the free market.
They know very well, of course, that the “work” they do – and the “skills” they possess – are worth next-to-nothing in the free market, which is why they hate it so. Naturally. For the same reason a cockroach hates the exterminator.
Maybe now they’ll learn the lesson that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch – especially when you can no longer force someone else to pay for it.
. . .
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Where were all these people screeching “Protect Federal Workers!” when just a few years ago the Biden Thing was firing federal workers who refused to be guinea pigs for Big Pharma and take the COVID shot? Oh wait, many of them likely CHEERED when Biden said YES to a question in a town hall interview with CNN whether city workers who refused to comply with vaxx mandates should be fired.
The only other thing I wish Trump and Elon would do is offer amnesty for any whistle-blowers to come forward to report on their fellow sinecures. The paranoia is running rampant now, think of it if they are worried if their fellow traveler gets amnesty first. Elon’s team would have their work done for them not against them.
Oh, what fun!
You know, I might have had a more “successful” scientific career if I had just stayed in academia, as do so many. But one big reason I didn’t is that I didn’t agree with the “business model”, which is essentially begging for funding from some federal agency. Begging for money that they stole. Couldn’t bring myself to do it.
No matter. I’ve followed my principles and my lab will be operational soon enough. And all those academics are out in the streets attempting to shame people into continuing to fund them.
Who’s laughing now?
Good for you BaDnOn, morals count in life.
>my lab will be operational soon enough
You are living the dream, my man.
What kind of equipment will you have?
What sort of investigations do you intend to undertake, if I may ask?
Just curious…
Here’s another perspective. In the 80s I was a fireman for the US Forest Circus. I was an engine crewman, then a driver, then a Hot Shot. We were, like an awful lot of people, GS3, 4, and 5 level employees. When we weren’t fighting wildfires we were doing forest management, cutting slash, piling, prescribed burning, etc. I was low paid grunt work, but on fires we hot hazard pay (+25%) and lots of overtime (+50%).
There actually are a lot of decent people doing real hard work for not too much money in federal employment. But the flip side is my niece’s disgusting little husband, a weasel who converted to Judaism for the contacts and moved to DC to Lobby and climb the money tree. Someone showed me a fakebook post a few days ago where they were bitching about the 2 traitors derailing their gravy train and all the po folks in their circles afraid for their cushy sinecures.
Frankly we’re at the point where,” kill them all, God will know his own” seems like the right approach. The decent hard working folks will land on their feet, the parasites need a good hard dose of reality.
Today I attended a @ResistanceRangers protest at Devil’s Bridge in Sedona. It’s a red rock arch just inside a wilderness area. About 20 of us were there with signs.
A crew of a dozen from Prescott National Forest came over, all laid off within the last two weeks. Some of them were members of the only Forest Service trail crew in that district. They brushed out trails in the wilderness areas, outside the near-town trails which are all maintained by volunteers.
Devil’s Bridge is a very popular photo site. The day started out with a mellow vibe when a couple walked out onto the arch. He knelt down and proposed to her, as a crowd of 200 or so applauded.
Half an hour later, the tone changed. A guy with a wife and two kids in tow became outraged at our presence. He started hollering at us: ‘I’m here with my family to enjoy this place. GET THE F*CK OUT OF HERE!’
Then he ripped a sign away from a 20-something woman and hurled it into the brush. Three of the Prescott crew jumped forward and wrestled him to the ground. One started punching his face. In turn, the counter-protester bit his ear.
This photo was taken a few minutes later, after the fisticuffs had devolved into a shouting match. The guy who started the incident is in the center of the photo, in a dark blue shirt, facing to the right:
https://ibb.co/Xx4hjfLH
He was heckled on his way out: ‘Why don’t you call a ranger? OOPS, they all got laid off!’
Despite this conflict, comments from the hundreds of hikers who passed by were overwhelmingly positive. Most thanked us for being there.
Two of my fellow protesters:
https://ibb.co/ycL0YYDy
What were you protesting?
Hank Hill: “When I was your age, I went to protests all the time.
Bobby Hill: But, I thought you hated protests.
Hank Hill: Yeah, but my dad loved them. Cotton used to take me to watch the hippies get beaten up and shot at with water cannons. Boy, I never saw him happier.”
[…] Guest Post by Eric Peters […]
While we need to reduce our debt, we also have to be careful to make sure that the bureaucracy can still function at its most basic level. Like it or not, we still have to have it. Now some agencies can disappear but even the IRS requires people to review returns and the Treasury still needs to send the checks to the retirees and make sure of course that they actually have a legitimate claim. Too much reduction may create paralysis and mayhem.
I just offer that we still need to be cautious
It seems that it’s open season on public employees (aka “civil servants”, though the efficacy of their “service” and how “civil” they are in performing it does at times seem questionable) and Federal employees in general. Ignore the self-righteous pontification and stick to the debate. Whether the taxpayer-paid employee is diligent in performance of his duties or not, and he’d better be, else the management of his employing agency has egregiously FAILED, the REAL question that should be asked is:
Is the function of the agency, especially at the Federal level, even STRICTLY AUTHORIZED by the US and/or applicable State Constitution? And none of that “well, the Commerce Clause” (which was never written as a “Gubmint can do whatever it wants” amendment, proviso, or quid quo pro) authorizes it if Interstate Commerce is even remotely involved” CRAP.
Either the purpose and mission of the agency is called for in the Constitution, or it’s NOT. And if NOT, then why the HELL does it exist? That’s an issue which it’s easy to evade by getting on your self-righteous high horse and pontificating all the livelong day about public employees being hogs slopped at the trough, parasite, lazy, entitled, and so on. That diverts from the overall problem of keeping Government within its authorized bounds, and in the end, that falls upon YOU…and ME TOO! (to steal a phrase, LoL!)
You mean like at a Constitutional level?
Nah didn’t think so.
Always amazing to me that people will defend bureaucrats and their parasitic nature. 2020 was a huge wake up call yet here we are.
“Always amazing to me that people will defend bureaucrats and their parasitic nature.”
No doubt, Burn It! Fuck the IRS. At very least, the Federal Cthulhu could be reduced to what it was before that son-of-a-bitch FDR got involved.
Hi Ja,
You write: ” we also have to be careful to make sure that the bureaucracy can still function at its most basic level.”
Why?
And who is “we”? I not only have no need for the bureaucracy – or the bureaucrats – I regard them as a I do the ticks my dog picks up. That is to say, as useless parasites who suck blood – which is just what they are.
Exactly. Years back during a government shutdown I would shake my head in disgust at all the wailing / gnashing on the local news. It could have remained “shutdown” forever and zero impact to me as a middle class working stiff. “Vital services to remain open” – OK, good opportunity to eliminate the rest yet the spineless leadership wouldn’t dare go there.
I think there’d still be some sort of certification for driving a car. In fact I imagine it would be far more difficult than the multiple-guess and don’t forget turn signals testing that happens now. But drivers licensing doesn’t happen at the federal level, the DOT just makes recommendations which the states carry out. That’s why the Real ID act was temporarily shut down using the states’ 10th amendment powers.
The thing I don’t understand is just why the media is so hell bent on making government employees into some sort of supermen. Maybe the press spent too much time watching West Wing and CSI? It wasn’t so long ago that government bureaucrats were the punchlines, not the heroes.
I watched a silent auction on Korean Drama TV. The bidders had what looked like old church fans (cardboard on a stick) with their number. The auctioneer called out an upped price and the bidder lifted his number. I want one of those, except instead of a number, I want a sign that says “I DON’T CARE.” That way, when the yammerers say:
1. Poor illegal children [I DON’T CARE]
2. Families are separated [I DON’T CARE]
3. Ukraine, Ukraine…[I DON’T CARE]
3. Trannys feelings are hurt [oh wait, my I don’t care sign is insufficient…I need a second sign. [DON’T REALLY DON’T GIVE A TINKER’S DAM EVER!! ]
Hmmm, exactly what the hell is a “Tinker’s dam”? Always learning new things around here.
We tinker(ers) tend to swear a lot when we bloody our knuckles, bruise our shins, etc. so a tinker’s damn is cheap and common, nearly free and unlimited. Seriously, a tinker used to be an itinerant mechanic/smith who pushed his cart from home to home repairing stuff.
Thanks for the explanation, Ernie.
Due to Glee’s spelling of the term, what I thought of immediately was a sort of Rube Goldberg machine that somehow is used for water retention.
>used for water retention
Close. It is actually a temporary dam used to retain solder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT7P8uiP3J0
Since it is destroyed once it has served its purpose, it has no long term value. Analogous to wood falsework required to construct a stone or brick arch, or elevated reinforced concrete structures which are cast in place.
One of my project goals is “no bad words”. I’ll come back into the house and the Commander asked “how did that go?”
“Successful, no bad words!”
Amen, Glee –
And while I get the sentiment, it is fundamentally not about “caring.” It is about being responsible for oneself and one’s own dependents. If one can afford to help “poor illegal children” and wishes to do so, such charity is laudable. But it is despicable to force people to “help” because no one owes other people anything – other than respect for their rights and civil treatment – absent a debt contracted freely.
Yeah, if I know someone going hungry, I’ll make sure they’re fed. But when someone tells me there’s hungry chilluns and they rob me to allegedly give to them, that’s a whole nother thing.
As long as we’re stuck with a bloated bureaucracy, I would much rather deal with bumbling bureaucrats, who might occasionally make a mistake in my favor, than with hyper-efficient machines. And make no mistake, replacing humans with AI is what Trump and Elon are up to. What was Trump’s first big announcement when he entered the White House? Half a trillion dollars committed to AI infrastructure. Remember, AI means tech-driven surveillance, which is essential for running an efficient communist state.
Yes, no doubt the motivation for firing them is not for saving you money or making life more enjoyable for you. Perhaps it has more to do with raking in huge profits from software subscription fees, after said software takes over the bureaucratic “work.” See how software subscription fees are affecting farmers and auto repair shops:
https://youtu.be/jaOS6bGta7M
As an exercise in government vs private: Take a vacation to South Dakota. Visit Rushmore. Visit Crazy Horse. Compare. I suggest doing it in that order for the best comparison or you may not even bother to hang out at Rushmore for a full evaluation.
The monument is going slowly, since it is a pay-as-you-go exercise with the tribe, not tax-as-you-go. And it dwarf’s Rushmore. But every year progress is made, and the folks most dedicated to it from the start are still represented by their kids! Polish and Lakota.
If you have a North Dakota or South Dakota license plate on your vehicle, it is free admission to the Crazy Horse Monument.
It was when I visited the crazy place.
It was time to kill Crazy Horse.
“Crazy Horse was no politician about talking; but he was one of the bravest men among the Sioux. The Crow Indians used to say, “We know Crazy Horse better than we do you other Sioux. Whenever we have a fight, he is closer to us than he is to you.” The way they recognized him in a fight was that, he always wore a colt hide as a cape.
(Signed)
William Garnett.
Pine Ridge Agency, S. D., August 19, 1920.”
William or Billy Garnett’s father was Brigadier General Richard B. Garnett, who was killed at the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, fighting for the Confederacy, and his mother was a full blood Oglala Sioux Indian. Beginning in 1873, when 18 years of age, Billy Garnett was employed as an interpreter at the Red Cloud Agency.
Nobody cares about Zelensky.
Why does TSA still grope us by the thousands 24/7 ?
Because Trump fooled a whole lotta stupid people.
Kids this Trump Bibi bullshit needs to STOP.
1 WHY THE FK is TSA still groping?
2 WHY is genocide being ignored
3 WHY are people so brainwashed by fat fux line of bs?
Nothing has or will get changed for the better.
Why does TSA still EXIST?
Cmon FOOLS WAKE UP
Good point re: TSA. Here’s another one: why doesn’t Trump write an executive order commanding USDA to stop PCR testing chickens (which gives them a pretext for destroying America’s poultry and egg supply and driving up prices)?
Having been in private sector all my life, subject to firing on a whim, it’s hard for me to work up a head of sympathetic steam. However, as a matter of civility and good optics I’m thinking it would be wise to take a small percentage of savings to help some of these folks who actually are capable of good work transition/train to be usable in the private sector. Ok…I could be snarky like 1) Show up and 2) Answer your emails. Seriously, we’re already headed into what I think is going to be a serious recession. Parasites plucked from the host could be a dangerous group?
They should be sent on their way with one small piece of advice. Learn to code, bitchez. Parasites gonna parasite either way. If they insist on making things sporty, let em.
Bill, the majority of public employees, even at the Federal level, do exactly that, and put in an honest day’s work for their pay. When that doesn’t happen, at the least, put them on a probationary status to “shape up or ship out”, then if they don’t “shape up”, indeed, “ship ’em out”, i.e., FIRE THEM. When that doesn’t happen, that’s MANAGEMENT failing in its most basic of basics and “Raison d’Etre”, and fire them ALSO.
The real issue is, hard-working or not, ARE THEY ACTUALLY NEEDED? And by that, a more simple question should be answered: where is the funded activity AUTHORIZED? Way back about 25 years ago, LP candidate Harry Browne (since passed on, sorry to say), advocated a “flat rate” Federal Income Tax of ZERO (i.e, abolish it) and replace it with NOTHING. As he believed that then the Federal Government was at least twice larger than any reasonable reading of the US Constitution authorized, and income taxes provided half of Federal revenue, well, the “solution” was rather OBVIOUS.
Look, no matter what, the process will be painful, of that there’s no doubt. But to let the fiscal gravy train keep careening until it derails is the WORST of strategy.
I have no sympathy for these people. They need to find productive work. Gov employees are a double whammy. Not only do they suck on the teat of the citizens, their “work” is harmful to society.
Our WA senator Patty “the Moron” Murray had to chime in, catastrophising about the Hanford Nuke Facility layoffs – “There’s only a skeleton crew left, what about safety?!”
Pattycakes not too sharp on the math. 1800 laid off, 11% of the Hanford headcount.
Turn the operation of Hanford’s nuclear plants to “WHoops”
Why are all of the billionaires now labeled “libertarian”?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/wapo-hit-second-wave-rapid-fire-mass-subscription-cancellations-leftist-readers-against
Musk, Zuckerberg, apparently even, Bezos. I don’t understand why the news media defines anyone that no longer affixes to the Asses or Elephants as Libertarian. Kudos to them if they have actually seen the light, but everything I have witnessed over the last few decades shows me very little Libertarian leanings, beliefs, or policies. Just because a former Leftist has moved more moderate doesn’t toss them into the Libertarian camp. I wish the media would stop this.
The job of the media is to lie. Mission accomplished. Carry-on.
Hey Raider Girl,
There’s always an effort to make libertarians look bad. To characterize us as selfish and uncaring. Equating libertarians with billionaires who are hated by those suspicious and jealous of them is no surprise.
My friend just got let go from CDL driving for getting his liscense suspended. No reason to show up to work, can’t work, get canned.
Why should the public sector be any different? Don’t show up to work, get canned.
Reminds me of a line from Ghost Busters, when Dan Ackroyd says “I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results”.
So had the Dean who got tired of Dr. Peter Venkman’s being more a con artist and hustler than a bona fide scientist. Oh sure, he had a doctorate…but how the hell he ever got one, or from what diploma mill, is a mystery. So that explains Peter…but Ray, unless he was simply unable to hold down a private sector job where “results” were expected, that’s not so well explained. At least he’s got a house left to him by his parents, with but three mortgages, this latest one at 19 percent (yeah, in late 1983, when the movie was filmed, interest rates were in the stratosphere) to fund the Ghostbusters, Inc effort, enough to get them one final Chinese take-out meal.
In REALITY, any properly managed business or Government Agency has a means to measure performance and productivity. At some point, the Congress Clowns want SOMETHING to justify the expenditures, bribes, and kick backs.
Government “Employees” should never have been allowed to form unions.
That’s what “Silent Cal” said whilst governor of MA, before it became “Taxachusetts”. When the Boston Police went on strike in 1919 (this was during the “Red Scare” immediately after WWI), Coolidge didn’t screw around, he declared the striking cops FIRED and unable not only to return to their jobs with the Boston PD, but unable to be hired anywhere in the Bay State. He had the Mass Guard mobilized to patrol the streets of Boston until replacement cops could be hired. Sure, that COST in the short run, but that got an out-of-control union booted!
Zelensky wants everything for free and gave it the old college try.
Charles Manson is envious that Zelensky stacked bodies as high as anyone can see.
Cemeteries don’t lie, tell the story.
The only thing Zelensky has accomplished is 1000000 dead Ukrainians.
Oops, wrong place, Zelensky entry is where it belongs.
Although, Zelensky is another employee of the US gov.
Not anymore.
Nobody cares about Zelensky
Why does TSA STILL EXIST
Because Trump is a LIAR working for Bibi.
When I was a kid, getting a “government job” with Uncle Sam, or your state, county, or city, was seen as a low-paying but safe job with decent benefits. You’d never get rich, but you’d never have to worry about losing your job or being taken care of in retirement.
But now, government work is a better deal. And it’s perfectly reasonable to ask why that happened, how it happened, and whether it’s sustainable. Particularly when our taxes keep going up, inflation keeps going up, and on top of that, the quality of government “services” gets worse and worse.
You see, most of that money you pay in taxes (or that Uncle Sam prints) is going into the pockets of the apparatchiks. And robbing Peter to pay Paul only works when Peter is worth robbing. Right now, Peter is pretty tapped out.
Oh many make out better than bandits. Our local school district (Two buildings, four buses) will get $3100 of my $4800 property tax extortion this year.
Open the books shows the superintendent (lives four houses down from me) makes over $140,000. There is a “elementary home room teacher” at $93,000. Why the hell does an elementary school need “home room”?
Yeah, I think a lot of states, counties, cities, and school districts need DOGE too!
I personally know a dozen retirees in their early 50s who are CalPERS multi-multi-millionaires (net present value). One is pulling in over $200K a year. Another is double-dipping from two stints in California’s “public service” sector. Some have moved into spectacular 5000 sq ft mansions.
So very different from the public employees I knew in my youth in the 60s.
Morning, Mr. Bill –
Yup. Neighbor of mine’s a retired cop; younger than me and he no longer has to work. If he chooses to work, it’s all gravy because his pension pays for all his basic bills plus some cushion. I begrudge no man a cent that he earns. But I resent people who take every cent they have.
Always been upsetting that people who are paid from my tax dollars get a better deal. They get cheaper health insurance, a pension, get all holidays, and make more money.
Hi Ben,
Yep. I ask the question: What gives any man (or woman) the right to force someone else to pay their salary?
Been thinkin’ about that. It’s not the workers (most of the time, prolly not totally apply to cops, DNR & IRS who collect $) …it’s not the workers doing the forcing, rather it’s the voter voting for it & the politicians enacting it (or failing to repeal it) and the judges & juries giving it all a stamp of approval. < Those are the ticks. They're the ones that make it all happen. The cop isn't forcing a pension be made available, the others are.
The workers, not so much. I.e. the city garbage man, the guys filling the potholes, etc. KnowwhatImean?
DOGE would go alot easier if they followed the Ron Paul litmus test:
If it’s in the Constitution, keep it.
If it ain’t in the Constitution, get rid of it.
Now THAT would be something worth celebrating!
Won’t happen. Musk, himself a “Rent Seeker” supreme, is looking to insert AI to replace Government functions current performed by human beings. If that’s actually more mission-effective, let alone resulting in savings to the taxpayer, all well and good, nothing wrong with the march of tech! But in the end, it’s going to be more a matter of whose grift shall prevail.
I’ve been thinking about the statement about OM, “at least he’s not a communist.” I think that’s probably true. What we’re seeing is a non-communist administering communism (a government money printing press, really) so he’s f*ing it up. Thus, the howls of the actual commies and their useful idiots. Question is, does it all collapse (pain for everyone, no doubt) into a sort of organic, natural, cooperative economic system free of coercion where value is traded for value consensually or does someone or something worse arise to try to make the current system “work.”
A seven-page memo issued by OMB on Wednesday directs two more rounds of RIFs (Reductions in Force), and to ‘close or consolidate regional field offices to the extent consistent with efficient service delivery.’
https://tinyurl.com/539x394f
It’s happening fast. Yesterday I heard that the lease has been cancelled on a National Forest supervisor’s office in Phoenix. The incumbent supervisor has been there for 13 years. I have no idea what he does. The fate of our local ranger station is unclear, but they have shed a LOT of people.
Met with a staffer of our Freedom Caucus congressman yesterday, to plead our case for some federally-funded, trail-related grants that are on hold for review, along with everything appropriated under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Executive order 14154 mandates a 90-day pause on all such spending.
It’s an interesting dilemma for a fiscal conservative. According to his staffer, he hates waste and fraud, but is sympathetic toward grants which provide tangible benefits to his district in a cost-effective manner. We shall see.
Hi Jim,
It is interesting to watch what his happening. The Trump Administration is following the same playbook as Argentina’s Milei. The federal government should have never become one of the largest US employers. Do I have sympathy for those that are being laid off? Of course. I don’t wish ill will on anybody who has lost a job or their concerns that they have to meet their basic needs. But, government is not a producer of anything. They are a middle man, and a corrupt one at that.
The US current fiscal policy is not attainable. Even with the current cuts it still may not be, but something needed to be done to stop the bleeding. Leaving this for our children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren to clean up and deal with isn’t fair to them.
Of course, I see no mention from the Asses on how Clinton laid off 600,000 government employees during the 1990s. It was also the last time that this country had a balanced budget.
Clinton robbed the SS funds. Converted the cash to non interest bonds and kept the cash. About 2-3 trillion if memory serves. This is why clowngress has to approve money for SS every year.
Hi RG,
I also have some sympathy for those suddenly losing their jobs, my son was laid off a few months ago and still hasn’t found anything other than temporary employment. Fortunately his wife makes a good salary so they’ll get by, it’s just a blow to his ego for now. OTOH no sympathy for those “working” for the IRS, who would want to be a part of such a parasitical agency? I’m looking forward to seeing some serious cuts at the Pentagram, let’s see how long they can pull the “that’s classified/national security” BS to hold off the Doge boys. Ronald Reagan once said the closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government agency. Rooting for Orange Man to drive a stake through its heart.
As a longtime Federale, looking at near-term retirement after 40 years of this shite, it’s about time the meat ax was wielded. Mine own selfish interest is less about retaining my job (shit, I could submit my retirement paperwork this coming Monday and still walk away with a decent package, but even that’s subject over time to what the Clowngress may do) but rather the ability of Uncle to pay said retirement and Social (In)Security…and it’s looking ever the more like I’ve bet on the WRONG horse.
I don’t have a problem funding the Park Service. What I have a problem with is any GovCo funding at any level for Sportsball. If the players think a new stadium is so important maybe they can invest some of their salary into it, especially since the team owners claim it’s such a good investment. I’ve yet to see much of a benefit from stadium construction except too the company building it.
Agreed on the sports palaces, but the National Pork Service is one of the most entitled, ideological, leftist agencies in the feral government. Aside from the fact that I like the parks and approve of preserving natural beauty, that is not one of the jobs allowed to the feral government by the only source of their legitimate authority, the Constitution. So if we’re going to have national parks and preserves that should require a constitutional amendment. Or better yet, leave such a thing to the states.
I would think Parks and Rec could easily be volunteer work. Maybe have each of the state DOTs make sure the roads remain clear (e.g. picking up deer carcass, clearing falling trees, etc.). They are natural parks. How much is there to do? Does anyone even stop into the visitor centers anymore or use one of the port a potties? Also, entrance to any national park should be free for everyone. I don’t have a problem for charging for hooking up to the electric or water at a campground, but driving around and visiting for the day should be no charge.
It isn’t a bad idea to get the young ins involved. I remember in my Seventh Grade Life Science class we spent a day at Crockett Park picking up trash. Afterwards, the teachers took us out for ice cream. A little sunshine and time away from a desk never hurt anyone. Maybe we need to bring it back.
I would guess the volunteers would do a better job. Visited Yosemite on the yearly scooter trip about 7 years ago. Looking “shopworn” to be polite about it. The main area with dining looked like it hadn’t been touched since the early ‘60s. Parking a hot mess, fortunately our lead guy spotted a grass area, with entry flanked by two big rocks. Just enough gap for full size Harleys and a faded small sign “Bike Area”.
The big western national parks are always busy. They’re an international “bucket list” destination for Asia and Europe. Large tour busses shuttle them all over the western US to see Arches, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Bryce Canyon and Zion. There are plenty of parks that aren’t anywhere near as popular but on any given weekend in the summer you’ll have trouble finding a parking spot.
NPS should be an independent self-funded entity outside of the control of Washington. Not sure if there’s precedent or not but I imagine there could be a non-profit established charged with overseeing, maintaining and promoting the NPS without the constant threat of congressional shutdown during budget impasse. Set it up to be self-sustaining with use fees and merchandise licensing.
It’d be a question of what to do with PUBLICLY OWNED LAND. The answer should be obvious: SELL it. That’s what the 1996 and 2000 Presidential candidate, the late Harry Browne advocated: End Social (In)Security for younger workers, and fund current and near-term benefits for those too late to build up long-term savings with the FICA tax monies no longer collected with annuities, themselves funded by the sale of non-productive Federal assets…including vast tracts of LAND.
Of course, the big issue with the sale of any significant piece of Federal property is that it ends up being another grift, practically given away to someone “connected” to the local Congress Critter.
Lots of valuable property around Aspen is listed with a feature of “BLM land adjacent.” Because you know your backyard will never be developed, never have the hoi-polloi move in, and have plenty of wildlife.
Might have to deal with the occasional wild fire or sue the feds to keep the mineral extraction away, but that’s a small price to pay for that exclusive premium.
You shall see yourself LOCKED OUT of NF land like west side access to Ansel Adams wilderness so it can be a “carbon sink”
Otoh if you can afford the $5k ummm fine party on!
Public union employees should also not be permitted to vote – unless they can prove that over 51% of their income is generated from non-government payroll.
Tell me any other contract “negotiation” that involve 3 parties – of which the one who pays for it all doesn’t have a seat at the bargaining table? That’s a public union.
Fvck all these people.
It’s hard to have sympathy for the person that your are forced to pay to take your money and give it to someone else when they lose their job.
The inimitable Tom Woods was engaging in a back and forth with someone over these cuts when someone who calls themselves Somewhat Truth wrote, “You people are not very bright. There will be at least 60% unemployment within 1 year. Our entire economy is government. They are over half the jobs. They subsidize so many industries.”
I honestly don’t argue with this much of this statement. Yes, GovCo employment has become an albatross around our necks. Since over half of those employed are tax consumers, and they vote, we see how a republic can be destroyed by people voting themselves largesse.
Many of the same people that are complaining about these GovCo cuts are also supportive of Keeeeeeev! I suggest they take what money they have and spend it on a ticket to Ukraine and enlist in with the Azov Brigade. They will then, once again, be employed…at least for a while.
Speaking of Keeeev, I’d always heard Zelinskyy was a comedian. I didn’t know how funny he was until yesterday. The only thing missing was “Moe” Trump jamming two fingers in his eyes while “Larry” Vance whacked him in the head with a board.
Hi Mark,
Speaking of Zelensky, he could be considered another example of a parasite. Under the Biden regime, we’ve given that corrupt country he’s dictator of (his term as President ended last year and he canceled the country’s election, citing war) hundreds of BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars, and he kept asking for MORE MONEY with the claim that they’d WIN if we just gave him MORE MONEY. Not only that, I’ve also seen video of his government dragging ordinary people off streets and sending them to their deaths to fight Russia.
“Not only that, I’ve also seen video of his government dragging ordinary people off streets and sending them to their deaths to fight Russia.”
That’s only because they are kicking Russkie butt so badly that they just want everyone in on the party…or…maybe not…
To say the Ukie GovCo is a sh*t show would an insult to feces.
If public employment is indeed that much of the workforce, it’s all smoke and mirrors and NEEDS to go “poof”!