Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 612 posts

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#71

Post by dwighttk »

Spartan-S63 wrote: post #51
mr337 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some banks are setting up low interest loan programs only for federal employees. They are low interest and are focused on amounts of 2-3 time your paycheck. Granted the rate things are going that might not be enough.

Not to mention that low interest loans are sort of predatory in this context, despite being lower than market rate interest rates. I understand that they have a profit a motive, but it doesn't make them the "good guys" in this scenario. There really are no good guys during a government shutdown.

kinda depends on the interest rate... look at it as an insurance for the bank against some of the people defaulting on the loans and it isn't predatory.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#72

Post by jazzyk »

rkochman wrote: post #7

I’m glad to see this. The shutdown has been too “business as usual” for most Americans, while others are expected to work without pay, which is ridiculous.

Strictly speaking, their pay is delayed - they will be paid for all the work, eventually. Still, regular employees should not be going through this, though.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#73

Post by noer »

dentemple wrote: post #3

There'll be a lot of angry people if the same thing happens in Atlanta over Super Bowl weekend.

Atlanta is the busiest airport in the country, there will be a lot of angry people if this happens at any time. That's not even mentioning the networks effects of a delay at ATL causing delays at other airports around the country.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#74

Post by SolaceQuantum »

klq wrote: post #62
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reagan did famously fire 11,000 striking air traffic controllers - so while you might be right I can understand a lot of hesitation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Contr... That was very cool. I know Reagan presidency is often romanticised, especially by, ugh, libertarians, but he had a pair of balls.

Genuine, is it very cool when now there's possibly going to be a generational shortage of ATC people in the near future possibly as a direct result of this?

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#75

Post by knotdvn »

pc86 wrote: post #42
justaguyhere wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they're explicitly prevented from striking Wow, is this true? Is this even legal (except maybe police and military)?

ATC is going to be as important economically and for public safety as police and military. You literally cannot fly commercial flights without ATC. They issue the flight plans, provide the routing, provide clearances for every taxi movement on the ground and every landing and takeoff for every commercial flight in the country. So what I mean is that whatever argument is made to make it illegal for police to strike (a…

Invest in my startup. UBER for ATC. Algorithms for Routing, Smart Contract, BlockChain, Natural Language...

Disruption

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#76

Post by praneshp »

kej wrote: post #58
dentemple wrote: post #3

There'll be a lot of angry people if the same thing happens in Atlanta over Super Bowl weekend.

Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world; it would be a mess whether it's Super Bowl weekend or not.

I lived there for a couple of years for grad school, and flew out about once a week in my final semester for interviews. The airport is a super well-oiled machine, it doesn;t really feel different from say, San Francisco. IMO it feels way more comfortable than LaGuardia, which is easily one of the worst airports I've been at in the US.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#77

Post by flyingpenguin »

tibbon wrote: post #56
wonderwonder wrote: post #24

Bearing in mind that ~40% of american's could not come up with $400 to cover emergencies, this is going to become more prevalent in the next few days / weeks as people will simply not be able to afford gas to get to their unpaid work. I read an article today discussing how TSA workers in HI are living in their cars in the airport parking lot as they cannot afford to commute. The FBI just cancelled its internship prog…

I've seen too many people say, "Oh, government workers should all know this stuff happens all the time, and if they don't have months or years of savings in the bank then it's just their fault". It's really sad that instead of being compassionate, too many are focusing on what "should" be instead of what is the reality for many people. Like you point out, the reality is that most people don't have savings. They shoul…

The thing that really bothers me about that "They should have savings" logic, is the expectation that they should have to use them.

Yes. They should have savings. EVERYONE should have min 3 months of income in savings. No one should be expected to use it.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#78

Post by notus »

mr337 wrote: post #41
wonderwonder wrote: post #24

Bearing in mind that ~40% of american's could not come up with $400 to cover emergencies, this is going to become more prevalent in the next few days / weeks as people will simply not be able to afford gas to get to their unpaid work. I read an article today discussing how TSA workers in HI are living in their cars in the airport parking lot as they cannot afford to commute. The FBI just cancelled its internship prog…

Some banks are setting up low interest loan programs only for federal employees. They are low interest and are focused on amounts of 2-3 time your paycheck. Granted the rate things are going that might not be enough.

This feels like disaster capitalism. They are inflating their image by saving the day when it is a responsibility of the state to ensure this doesn't happen and to not use shutdowns as a negotiation tactic. If anything they are just prolonging people getting angry enough to do something about it.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#79

Post by tvanantwerp »

wonderwonder wrote: post #24

Bearing in mind that ~40% of american's could not come up with $400 to cover emergencies, this is going to become more prevalent in the next few days / weeks as people will simply not be able to afford gas to get to their unpaid work. I read an article today discussing how TSA workers in HI are living in their cars in the airport parking lot as they cannot afford to commute. The FBI just cancelled its internship prog…

In DC, I've seen lots of banks and credit unions offering 0% loans to furloughed Feds.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#80

Post by _djo_ »

jazzyk wrote: post #72
rkochman wrote: post #7

I’m glad to see this. The shutdown has been too “business as usual” for most Americans, while others are expected to work without pay, which is ridiculous.

Strictly speaking, their pay is delayed - they will be paid for all the work, eventually. Still, regular employees should not be going through this, though.

None of the contractors will be paid, as I understand it, only permanent federal employees.
Post reply on HN