US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages • Hacker News Board

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#301

Post by HarryHirsch » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:37 PM UTC

czbond wrote: post #282

fiveoak wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people have a hard time showing empathy for others. Part of it can be due to immaturity or being overly sheltered, lack of social skills, etc. It's easy to be critical of others that make bad decisions but EVERYONE makes bad decisions, being imperfect and making mistakes is part of being human, and what might be easy for one person might not be easy for another person.

I don't think it is that it isn't understood that people make different lifestyle and economic decisions and we all pay for our decisions somehow no matter what they are; The sensationalism, victimization blaming, and "woe is me" that a small minority and media raise. No one is entitled to income, a job, or having others pay for their expenses. It is a "take the lump, become stronger, make a plan for now and later, a…

No one is entitled to income, a job, or having others pay for their expenses

That is an assertion, not a statement of fact. Christian values actually teach the exact opposite, and that's why Jesus said that one cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#302

Post by lkrubner » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:37 PM UTC

On February 7th, myself and my co-workers are supposed to travel half way across the country for a major sales-call/meeting. But if the shutdown is still happening, there is no amount of money that would tempt me to get on that plane. Stuff like this worries me:

"The delays come one day after a stark warning was issued by air industry unions about the risk to public safety. "In our risk averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break," air traffic, pilot and flight attendant union leaders said in a joint statement."

I can't be the only who feels this way, and the longer the shutdown goes on, the more people are likely to be worried about air travel.

In the short term you might think my company will suffer because of a lost sales opportunity, and that is strictly our loss. But if it happens to enough companies, then it is going to hit the general economy.

Working on major projects means long lead times. The sales that are not being closed this quarter are going to show up as less economic activity in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

Unless the shut down ends immediately, it seems likely this will have medium-term or long-term consequences.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#303

Post by isostatic » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

cletus wrote: post #168

Honestly I just don't want to fly at all until this whole thing is over. Who knows if on the day I want to fly there won't be a shortage of ATCs or TSA to man the "security" line? We have 2 horrible years where Trump was in the White House and the GOP controlled the House and the Senate and there was no stomach for the border wall. To think there is any greater chance now that the Democrats control the House or that…

While ATC is of course essential, I'm unsure what different TSA not turning up would make.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#304

Post by ataturk » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

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…

The Federal Govt. has too many workers. We taxpayers cover it. It's ridiculous. I don't care about their plight--the TSA should never have existed to begin with! It was a Bush era power grab on top of 9/11, which to me, was perpetrated by our own Intel community specifically so they could do their big power grab.

The world will not fall apart if TSA goes out of existence. Stop thinking like a statist and start thinking like a free American FOR A CHANGE!

On the radio this morning, my state legislature is trying to get a law passed to give zero-interest loans to all these assholes. What...the...hell? Where was my state govt. to bail me out on the many occassions where my work was tenuous as hell?

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#305

Post by bluGill » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

mdavidn wrote: post #290

bluGill wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't blame only the president, congress has just as much blame for not passing a budget the president would agree to.

They did pass a CR back in December. Everyone thought the President would sign it. He changed his mind.

Still partially their fault for thinking the president would. Even if the president changed his mind afterwards they take some blame as their job is to figure this out in time.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#306

Post by sparkie » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

akhilcacharya wrote: post #214

bouncing wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid, my dad was deciding between two engineering jobs; one for the US Department of Commerce and another in the private sector for a big aerospace contractor. The private sector one paid more, I remember, but my mother brought up to my dad something interesting: You're less likely to get laid off, and you'll always have more job security, with the stable paycheck provided by a government job. It's weird…

If this country was actually run like a business, the CEO would be fired by now.

If the country was run like a business, they wouldn't be in business, they would be bankrupt.

The purpose of a business it create wealth. The purpose of government is to take wealth. Government does some useful functions with the wealth it takes, but extremely inefficiently. Private enterprises which are profit motivated consistently outperform government on budget, quality and time.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#307

Post by bitcurious » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:39 PM UTC

rhexs wrote: post #216

bouncing wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid, my dad was deciding between two engineering jobs; one for the US Department of Commerce and another in the private sector for a big aerospace contractor. The private sector one paid more, I remember, but my mother brought up to my dad something interesting: You're less likely to get laid off, and you'll always have more job security, with the stable paycheck provided by a government job. It's weird…

Holy hyperbole. Call me when layoffs start happening, back-pay isn't actually paid, the pension and generous vacation schedule goes away, etc. If these jobs were so terrible the employees would be clamoring to leave. Instead, the employees realize the benefits are worth it and are still trying to stay. Why are these public jobs considered "god-given rights"? I work in the private sector. If I don't get paid, I have t…

>Why are these public jobs considered "god-given rights"? I work in the private sector. If I don't get paid, I have to find a new job. That apparently doesn't apply to public sector employees anymore. Is there some sort of immutable compact I've missed here?

You think the employees are saying - "working is my right, gosh darn it, pay or no pay?"

They work not because they feel entitled to the job but because (a) not coming in to work has been criminalized and they could go to jail, and (b) people would die if they stopped working. This isn't hyperbole - there are hundreds of organ transplant operations happening every day. The most hardy organs die in about 2 days, the most fickle need to be implanted within 6 hours of extraction. If flights stop, that's it - the patient dies. That's a single example off the top of my head.

Criminalization: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Service_Labor-Manageme...

As a final note - even if all of these folks quit their jobs today, it's not like there is an extra 2 million available positions out there, ready to absorb the new labor force.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#308

Post by detaro » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:39 PM UTC

SteveCoast wrote: post #276

Why hasn't the FAA been privatized anyway? It looks like most of Europe's air controllers and even airports were long ago privatized.

I believe the most common model in Europe on country-level is that of a state-owned or at least state-controlled company, with sometimes some locations being subcontracted (but I believe the latter exists in the US too). International agreements about allowed fees probably mean you can't really make a profit, so little reason for other owners to be interested.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#309

Post by addicted » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:39 PM UTC

akhilcacharya wrote: post #214

bouncing wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid, my dad was deciding between two engineering jobs; one for the US Department of Commerce and another in the private sector for a big aerospace contractor. The private sector one paid more, I remember, but my mother brought up to my dad something interesting: You're less likely to get laid off, and you'll always have more job security, with the stable paycheck provided by a government job. It's weird…

If this country was actually run like a business, the CEO would be fired by now.

If the government was run like a business it would have merged with the Chinese government by now.

It almost certainly would have shut down half the state governments due to poor performance.

And it would have declared bankruptcy and not paid any of its workers or maintained any of its infrastructure.

There’s a reason government exists. The greatest strength of private industry is any one institution is allowed to fail, without destroying the system. The government is needed where that does not hold true. That’s why the Too Big to Fail companies are such a threat to capitalism and private industry. They break the fundamental Darwinian impulses that makes private industry such a great creator of wealth and ideas.

Re: US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages

#310

Post by lolsal » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 4:40 PM UTC

dwighttk wrote: post #109

chrisBob wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Super Bowl travel such a big deal? Doesn’t the stadium only seat about 50k people anyway? I understand that the game is exciting, but I don’t see what travel to one venu would be news.

75K record attendance 77K

That's really surprising to me - my favorite college football team regularly sells out their 100k seat stadium during the regular season. Seems like the superbowl is leaving a lot of money on the table.