It would be unkind, of course, to spit in the face of a friend or relative who lost a cherished federal job. Nevertheless, it doesn't change my view of the need to eliminate waste to read perspectives like this:
“It’s really hurtful for the president to insinuate that you don’t exist or that your job consisted of sitting at home doing nothing and cashing the paycheck,” he says. “I’d like to see him sifting through spiny naiad in 120-degree weather looking for parasitic snails. He’s the one that goes golfing on the government dime. I don’t even know how to golf.”Or this:
“My life is disintegrating because I can’t work in my chosen field,” says Jenn, 47, from Austin, Texas.She chose the field, so the taxpayer can lump it? Is the point of federal taxes to fulfill her employment dreams?
“What they tell me is it’s just cutting out the waste, the excess spending — that your job’s not that important,” says 27-year-old Stubbs. “I’m not saying it’s the most important job in the world but it’s my job. It’s important to me.”Meanwhile, DOGE's tally indicates that their efforts have saved each American taxpayer over $1,500 already.
11 comments:
Practicing on the easy stuff.
My jobs, before I retired, were paid for out of federal research grants, but I never knew year to year whether the money would be there, and I kept watching other options. It wasn't as though I was entitled to the job--if the people figured something else is more important than physics research, that was their call.
I can definitely understand wishing to work as a Park Ranger in one of the beautiful parks that we have. I can see how, if you had such a job, it would be important to you and that your life would be objectively worse if you had to switch to working at a fast food restaurant.
Nevertheless all the people working at fast food restaurants are paying taxes to support each Park Ranger. The Ranger gets more pay, better benefits, and a more enjoyable job as well. That’s not “fair” either.
A lot of restaurants go under. Tech or insurance firms go belly-up or get acquired by other companies who cut whole departments and layers of management, or move it to a different state. Schools close. Churches become unsustainable.
It IS awful for those involved. A friend at pub night this week spoke of the year he spent unemployed twenty years ago, sending resume after resume out and making calls. I was at the same place for 42 years, but that may be because I am so terrible at getting another job. I applied for a few over the years. It does hurt to have your skills rejected, particularly when you know they are wrong and you really would be their best choice but just can't sell it.
I don't rejoice in their pain. My niece and goddaughter just got let go from a leftist nonprofit in DC, her (conservative) brother is having a hard time finding an internship before graduation, their father's job hangs on funding for planetariums that had previously been approved. (Planetariums are usually both public and private funding and need both.)
But this is what almost everyone faces.
I can recall few feelings more unpleasant in my life than losing a job and having trouble finding a new one. It's definitely not as much fun as being in demand and having choices like the belle at the ball. But no job is about "fairness," least of all a taxpayer-funded one. It's like a candidate complaining that it was unfair he wasn't elected, because being a U.S. Senator was his dream job, and he was counting on the income, benefits, and perks.
I remember Fred Tuttle from Vermont running for Congress against Pat Leahy in 1998 after retirement because it sounded like a good-payin' job that didn't require any trainin' or experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUZGv4idk3s. Great video, and you can get the sense of the whole 90 minutes of it in the first few.
It's no fun being fired from a job. It's no fun having no job for a year straight. My wife and I both have been there.
However.
The entitled attitude of the three carefully selected examples provided by the AP--typical of the press in general--infuriates me. Their feelings of entitlement entirely cancel out any sympathy I might have had for them. In fact, they're in the hole to me. I want my Maypo.
Separately, a nit: DOGE's tally indicates that their efforts have saved each American taxpayer over $1,500 already. That seems off by a few zeros.
Eric Hines
Yes. American dining has been
Decimated. Too many fast food, restaurants masquerading as fine dining.
These same federal workers who are bemoaning the loss of their taxpayer funded jobs, were the same ones who told newly unemployed coal miners and workers from the Keystone Pipeline who got laid off, to learn to code. So my sympathy meter is pegged at zero.
I'm not sure how many Americans are taxpayers, but at a rough guess 250 million? Multiply that by $1.5K and you get $375 billion, seems in the ballpark.
Like James, some of my work is funded by federal grants. Being in the composite materials world, I don't see it going away anytime soon. Frankly, that's my biggest hangup with the job, but I can still empathize with those losing their jobs to an extent. This type of entitlement lessens it quite a bit.
Besides that, I have been surprised to learn so many people seem to consider the federal government to be a jobs program.
Deevs
We sort of knew this was a official position, from the coverage of past government "shutdowns." There would be a flood of articles about the terrible impact, which almost never identified a service some taxpayer was truly missing, but instead harped on missed paychecks previously funded by taxpayers. And there are many voters who will believe to their dying day that taxpayer-funded jobs expand the economy even when the federal worker produces nothing that any consumer really wants or needs.
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