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Comment by snide | Hacker News Reader

I used to look at these last minute shutdown saves fairly cynically. It seems very much just a bunch of political theatrics and ways to skirt stuff in under pressure. I'm sure that's very much part of it, but there's a lot more impact then I realized and I now am happy to see these events averted.

Three years ago I moved to Annapolis (near DC) and almost every third family I met had someone working in a Fed job of some sort. They follow these sorts of things with a lot more rigor because if a shutdown happens, they are temporarily out of work and a paycheck. Most of the folks I know are a little older and this isn't too big a deal, but they explain how hard it is for younger coworkers who haven't yet factored shutdowns into "part of the job" and often need bridge loans to make it through the downtime.

I don't know why I never really thought of it with that perspective before.

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My niece was in this situation. Surprised me to learn from her, that she got all the pay when it was over. No lost income. Just delayed. Puts a different aspect on it. For instance, a three-week shutdown means we pay government employees three weeks pay for doing nothing.

Not a good situation, and should be avoided at all costs. But sheesh.

Well YMMV but as a contractor it hadn't mattered since they're paid from stashed money.

A government shutdown mostly means the government can't borrow any more money but if they've already borrowed it and it's not spent they can still spend it. i.e if the government stashed money somehow (not rare) they can continue to use that stashed money to pay you.

So Social Security has stashed money and it'll pay out recipients. However they will prioritize payouts over verifying benefits. Which IIRC means you can continue to get money but if you wanted to apply for social security you need to wait 3 weeks for the government to un-shutdown.

TSA apparently does not stash money so will require work-for-delayed-pay.

National parks do not do work-without-pay so hopefully you don't have a vacation involving them.

Unsurprisingly, flood insurance doesn't have a stash of money so they'll immediately halt any payouts.

https://www.axios.com/2023/09/27/government-shutdown-effects...

Oh, it is a bunch of stupid political theatrics, but it also has real impacts on real people. Much of modern politics is like that, especially in the US. Lots of people have figured out that the theatrics sell, and like a circus performer they are driven to more and more dangerous stunts in order to get the attention.

(Note that in many political systems it's simply not possible for this kind of failure to pass a budget to happen without automatically triggering an election. The US is also unique in how normal it is for its politicians to oppose its continuing existence as a functioning federation, far more so than even the EU)

One of the shutdowns came with reporting that a number of Federal science research projects were irrevocably destroyed, because they were the sort of thing that required continuous attention by staff who were locked out of their jobs. It's a very destructive form of theatre.

My guess is that there are DC local banks that offer loans specially tailored made for shutdowns? (Where perhaps you can even submit the interest to your employer as a business expense?)

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