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Comment by GeneralMayhem | Hacker News Reader

Most of these workers had better-paying jobs in the private sector. 18F existed specifically to hire top tech-industry talent to work on federal-government modernization and efficiency projects. The people there almost certainly took a pay cut because they wanted to do with that was good for their country.

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Yes. There are, of course, plenty of people who work in the federal government who do it because it’s a job with decent benefits and so on. But there is a significant chunk of them, I would guess the majority from my dealings, who take pride and working for the government and serving the country. It’s one of the intangible benefits of the job. That’s what makes this insanity all the sadder.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t met a single federal employee that regards their job as some form of patriotic duty. Quite the opposite from what I’ve experienced, it’s mostly “I don’t make as much but at least I can’t get fired”.

It's going to dramatically depend on department. EPA? Probably a passion, but also not a lot of other places to work for those exact jobs. IRS auditor? Maybe; maybe that's the job they could get, or maybe it's a choice between that and making $$$ at a big-name consultancy. 18F? Almost certainly a choice of patriotic duty, because those people could walk into any big-tech job and make multiple times their salary.

I don’t think it’s most people’s primary motivation, which is how it sounds like you’re interpreting me.

Fair enough

Very rarely is helping a country’s government achieve its goals good for that country’s people.

The aims of the people and the state are quite different.

Do you apply this logic to DOGE as well? Absurd.

We are the government. We are a republic.

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