Schneier hits the mark here.
Government only works at all if people care.
And if you tell someone that their job, and the organisation they work for - are of no value - then those people won't care any more.
I don't know what the outcome would be of large swathes of the government either being fired or not caring any more but we're going to find out and I don't think it will be good.
Or maybe not, maybe Trump and whathisname are right and government really is a complete waste of money. In which case there will be great money savings and the USA will be the better for it.
https://www.federalbudgetinpictures.com/where-does-all-the-m...
If you got rid of every department that DOGE is targeting completely, you still only save 8%
A lot of the foreign aid the US does is kind of like this, where we're attempting to shift other countries to our way of life through a mix of direct aid, loans, news, and other methods.
There's a real long term ROI on these things where it's inarguably to the US' benefit that other countries want to speak English, use USD, operate businesses similarly to how we do, etc.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2148945/
When it gets mentioned online it mostly seems to be racists suggesting Africans are inferior, partly based on the Chinese engineer's frustration with local customs and graft and labour market.
But I found it quite humanising of both the African and Chinese people featured. The director is Belgian, which controlled the region up until independence 50 years before filming.
You can't cut $2T without cutting at least some "mandatory" spending or your interest payments, because the total of absolutely all your "discretionary" spending comes to a total of $1.7T.
Your "discretionary" spending includes your entire active military. Not the retired military, that's "mandatory" spending, but all your active military.
Your non-military "discretionary" spending is $0.9T, less than half of what people are talking about cutting.
Then engines start to heat up and fail. And if there's an obstacle along the way, it's game over.
This is a dangerous game played by morons full of hubris.
On June 16 YC organizes an "AI Startup School"; the first speaker is Elon Musk:
https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/ai-startupschool
What a shame.
If my guesses are correct, it’ll work just long enough for another administration to take over to deal with the fallout.
If the USA gets a repeat of the USSR collapse, you're looking at an independent Texas and California (and perhaps Hawaii?) within a few years, 50% GDP loss, proper hyperinflation, infighting over the nuclear arsenal being under federal authority or the authority of whichever state it happened to be physically in at the time, and a 6-7 year reduction in life expectancy.
There was a decade of dysfunction and ossification before the USSR collapsed within a couple months
A decade of low oil prices (affecting exports), high defense spending (increasing deficit), societal unrest due to the resurgence of nationalism, and slowing productivity all happened quietly over the 1980s before catalyzing into collapse.
The country could have continued like this for years, if not decades, were it not for a few men and coincidental events.
Good thing the US hasn't .. oh.
(the oil price is actually OK as is the trade balance, so far, but social cohesion is fraying and people are always complaining about productivity)
Did the USSR have an entire administration rapidly and deliberately tearing down their government, or was it more of the cracks in the foundation finally giving out?
Just because the former took a decade doesn't mean that this will require the same amount of time.
Assuming things have not deteriorated too much by then that it can still be fixed.
Further, if it completely breaks down by then they may get the blame, even though it was not their fault.
This also assumes that an administration with a different philosophy gets in: if things are still "fine", another bunch of GOP deconstructionists could get in and continue things. In addition, DOGE is not about cost-cutting but about ideological purging, and so what's left of the civil service could act to sabotage any 'recovery efforts'.
Faster than people realise. The CIA was surprised by suddenness and swiftness of the collapse of the USSR — yes, there were other predictions that it would collapse imminently, but such are made of every country and organisation all the time, of those who should have known best (the Russian government on the inside, the CIA on the outside), it was a surprise.
Happens to business too. People don’t realise how long these entities can circle the drain.
We in the US are about to take a 50 to 90% drop in our standard of living as a result. 8(
If Aynn Rands Great great grandniece has to fear for her life over this - so be it. To propagate this self-destructive retardation has to be a curse on all who give in to it. Just because the mine runneth dry and you want to fire up the carrying wood for warmth, does not make it a valid opinion.
Job security is a big part of why somebody takes up a government job. And it even makes sense. People trade stability for some percentage of extra money they could earn. You are not likely to hire good talent for what government pays.
On the other hand, I can't think of a bigger disaster than running a continent spanning government like you would run a start up.