More groundbreaking research funded by the NIH. It's sad to think about how much the US is going to lose with the arbitrary slashing and burning and purging.
So long as the research has a conclusion, it's not a failure. We learned something. There may be something to be said for whether or not the research is a worthy topic, but that's a different conversation.
There is going to be AT LEAST a whole generation of loss of progress at this point.
Everything is going to slowly crawl to a stop
and it's not an accident but by design, it's right out of Project2025
https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-ban-renewing-sen...
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/27/g-s1-...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/elon-musk...
> Hours after Musk asserted that USAID had restored its Ebola prevention efforts, the agency informed several organizations working with the U.S. government to prevent the spread of the virus overseas that their contracts had been terminated
> organizations — which included UNICEF, which had been working with USAID on Ebola prevention in Uganda and other countries — were among thousands of organizations affected by the Trump administration’s move to cancel foreign-assistance contracts
(Not that polices to reduce the cost to Americans, especially relative to foreign markets, ought to be unpopular)
1) Many other countries don't have the ass backwards healthcare system that we have 2) Then there are the poorer countries. It turns out that things like providing them cheap food & medicine manages to a) provide a source of soft power & influence in the world, and b) helps us by helping them by limiting the spread of various diseases and maladies
Are you implying the NIH is "stultified and corrupt"?
If so, care to back that claim up?
Trying to fix the world with a sledgehammer.
So no, not all things government does can be replaced by the private sector, for reasons of game theory.
The argument that 'slashing' is the only way to reduce headcount is also extremely dumb.
The problem is you don't know which 95% of studies beforehand.
That's not true.
> If a company fires 100 employees and certain operations stop functioning, they may hire back 10 employees and reassess
How likely is it that 10 employees come back? How likely is it that critical institutional knowledge is lost forever?
> The result is a company that functions just as effectively as before but with fewer employees
Does it? Have you ever been through a reorg or restructuring at work? Do things ever get back to just as effective as before any time soon?
> This is an optimization of resources and efficiency
It's squandering human capitol, knowledge and reduced efficiency both in the short term and long term. It's the most expensive way to reduce your overhead. A far cry from optimization.
No, that's ^ not true ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
> How likely is it that 10 employees come back?
Pretty much nobody is irreplaceable.
> How likely is it that critical institutional knowledge is lost forever?
In the digital age, almost impossible. Documentation, process automation, and knowledge transfer mitigate this risk.
> Does it? Have you ever been through a reorg or restructuring at work? Do things ever get back to just as effective as before any time soon?
Yes, I've been through many re-orgs at AWS. If done right, things get better fairly quickly (3-6 months).
> It's squandering human capital, knowledge, and reduced efficiency both in the short term and long term. It's the most expensive way to reduce your overhead. A far cry from optimization.
Not necessarily. The short-term pain of restructuring can lead to long-term efficiency gains. Organizations that fail to optimize end up bloated and sluggish, which is far more costly in the long run. Smart cuts, when combined with proper reallocation of resources, create a more effective organization.
Nobody is so thorough at documenting that their job is 100% documented and the documentation is fully up to date.
You think Jim, who's been training the new hires on the factory floor for a decade, who knows all the tricks to making this fit together at wiget factory even when the process instructions are vague, has documented everything?
Could document everything?
Just be cause digital records are present doesn't mean they're complete, up to date or accurate.
Institutional knowledge is a thing, and it's very valuable. You can't wave it away and say we're in a digital age.
No, I don't think so. That's why the lay-offs predominantly target probationary employees.
What is their average tenure at the department?
Is this the case for all federal jobs or can it be longer for some roles?
It's a very hamfisted deliberate disruption of all operations and services. Which, again, can hardly be called "targeted" by any metric.
Are you sure you really work at AWS? Dude, how often do you realize the documentation is not sufficient and you have to dig through people's brain to actually get the nuances, that is, lucky enough they are still around? lolll