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

US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

431–440 of 839 posts

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#431

Post by mindslight »

rayiner wrote: post #291
yeyeyeyeyeyeyee wrote: post #254

The US is busy making the biggest own-goal one could imagine. From a position of world-wide dominance and respect, it is being destroyed at a rate that is too quick for most to even start to comprehend what the outcome of these actions will be. I suspect the consequences of these actions will be carried for the rest of our lives, as they are not so easy to turn back. Lots of other countries are standing by watching w…

[flagged]

A "disloyal" administrative state for trying to perform their boring congressionally-designated jobs in response to a pandemic, rather than falling in line with supporting the president's personal business interests by saying everything was fine and telling people to continue going to hotels? Uh-huh.

The government is not a corporation and the president is not a unilateral dictator. You're right about other cultures having values alien to Americans, and perhaps you need to do some introspection there before making political arguments.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#432

Post by Ylpertnodi »

rayiner wrote: post #315
enraged_camel wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they did? Is this a joke? Or have you not been following the UK’s descent into poverty and irrelevance?

The UK’s GDP per capita trajectory diverged around the end of the Great Recession. That was before the Brexit vote (2016) and long before the actual Brexit (2020). France and Italy have been stuck in more or less the same doldrums since the same time: https://datacommons.org/place/country/FRA?utm_medium=explore...

As a fairly regular visitor (for work), what particular doldrums are you referencing? Admittedly, the loss of the US market will be a big blow for exports, but the anti-US (Trump) feelings strongly would put up with a financial hit rather than dealing with Mr. Loopy. And Tesla's are becoming very unpopular...and unsellable.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#433

Post by scarab92 »

Aromasin wrote: post #395
onemoresoop wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think Musk is on uppers all the time? This would indeed explain a bunch of things related to his behavior

Use your own judgement, but he looked like he was rolling during the inauguration... https://x.com/Dreamshockcom/status/1881383073495048599 Some might say he was just stretching his neck, but personally I love an electronic music gigs, and I've seen that behaviour enough times before. He's not quiet about his ketamine usage either (not an upper per-se, but close to an alcohol-like hallucinogenic from my experience).

[flagged]

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#434

Post by someothherguyy »

ty6853 wrote: post #377
bbor wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, all I'll say is this then: you are a tiny minority.

Yet the public voted for someone openly stating they'd carry out DOGE. Majority is just a collection of tiny minorities, in this case my minority opinion partially aligns. As it turns out minority isn't aways what you think.

This RMG survey reports 19% of all voters knowing what DOGE was in December of 2024.

https://napolitannews.org/posts/19-percent-of-voters-know-wh...

(PDF) https://napolitannews.org/assets/pdfs/67633dc0cced7-gcm24-12...

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#435

Post by mschuster91 »

afavour wrote: post #353
mschuster91 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the insiduous thing we're seeing - when you have to work two jobs just to make rent on a dilapidated shack for a slumlord you don't have time to protest, and when your healthcare insurance depends on having a job (because there aren't charity-run hospitals around any more) you can't afford the risk getting fired for going on a strike, much less actual "direct action". On top of that, mass media controls the na…

> just look how fast Luigi Mangione got out of the news. What news would there be? He was arrested and locked up, his court case hasn’t started. Should we have “Luigi still in jail” headlines?

I'd have expected a debate about healthcare cost and actual reforms resulting out of it because the momentum clearly was there, but hey, here we are... For a while, until he was caught, there was a debate beginning to form what drives someone to execute a healthcare executive on the street - but the day he got caught, the debate got suppressed and no one is talking about it anymore.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#436

Post by _dark_matter_ »

scarab92 wrote: post #352
nickpeterson wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These firings will have no impact on your taxes. Instead of people having a job, the money will just get given to oligarchs and you’ll pay largely the same taxes but have moderately less government services. Socialism is needed to some degree for society to function. Capitalism alone is an awful system.

So, basically, left wing conspiracy theories? In reality, whether taxes fall or not likely depends on whether the savings are returned in the form of income tax cuts, or whether the savings are used to repay the massive debt that has accumulated from decades of deficits. Both outcomes are good in the long run.

False dichotomy. They will likely be used to continue tax cuts for the wealthiest (and corporations? I don't remember), which are set to expire. That is neither scenario that you envisioned.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#437

Post by zimpenfish »

rayiner wrote: post #375
zimpenfish wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We could close our borders to the world entirely and be fine after an initial discomfort. I'm no economist but a trade deficit in the hundreds of billions[0] suggests otherwise. [0] Wikipedia says 773B for 2023.

Which is just 3.3% of GDP.

> Which is just 3.3% of GDP.

Again, I'm not an economist, bear with me and explain what that's got to do with the trade deficit being a deficit? You could have a GDP of a quintillion dollars a year but if you're consistently running a trade deficit (which the US has for decades), that strongly implies you cannot close your borders with impunity.

If you could supply the goods cheaper than importing them, people would, no? Simple capitalism!

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#438

Post by yurishimo »

throw0101d wrote: post #193
surgical_fire wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is the same reason I moved to Europe. I don't think I was overoptimistic. It was literally the best decision I ever made, in every aspect I can think of.

> I don't think I was overoptimistic. It was literally the best decision I ever made, in every aspect I can think of. A lot of folks mention the lower salaries in Europe (generally, and especially for tech): has mattered much in your (personal) experience for quality of life and happiness?

For me, the lower salary has not affected my daily life too much. I saved a lot of money in the US, but now making about 100k between myself and my partner in the Netherlands, we are still living a comfortable life. We own a car, bought a house in 2024, and we are saving about 1k per month into various sinking funds with a net savings closer to 500/pm. No kids yet, but hopefully with raises and generous family leave policies, I think we will be okay.

My quality of life is insanely better. I live in a walkable small city in the south. I walk to the grocery store a few times a week. I bike to the library or to the train station. My job turns off at 5pm and I don’t work on the weekends unless I want to. Even then, that weekend work time can be substituted for work during the week.

The biggest downside for us has been the cost of traveling back to the US to see family. It’s very expensive for us to fly home since we also need to rent a car usually. Even saving 1k per month, that’s a significant part of the yearly savings just going to buy plane tickets for one big trip per year. After we have kids, I suspect grandma and grandpa will be coming here to visit more often because we can’t afford to fly with a family of 4 or 5 more than once every other year. Not to mention the tax implications of spending too much time abroad.

If you can afford to try it out, take a 90 day visa and just chill and see if the lifestyle works for you (including remote work). Worst case scenario, you go back to the US after a year if you hate it.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#439

Post by grandempire »

hermitcrab wrote: post #425
grandempire wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you agree that there was a large amount of hyperbole which was intended to create fear but not constructed in good faith? that’s what I would conclude from “it exists but wasn’t taken seriously”

No.

I randomly sampled a few articles. And I think you’re right and I’m wrong. The economic messaging is aggressive and was wrong, but I’m not seeing famine and war.

Here is an article that sampled various expert opinions:

“ This event will unleash the kind of uncertainty that Keynes had in mind when he said “we simply do not know” when referring to the likely effect of war. Such uncertainty can only be disruptive for financial markets. We will enter a new era of volatility that is likely to last until these difficult negotiations are completed.”

“it is more likely than not that we will witness political instability.”

“ Such market reactions could sharply contract economic activity, further depressing asset prices in a self-reinforcing cycle”

https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/brexit-potential-financial-ca...

So I agree, the more extreme must have been amplified voices from the fringe, on places like Reddit.

Re: US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

#440

Post by nindalf »

scarab92 wrote: post #365
someothherguyy wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you got your information from economic facts comparing Europe to USA this comment it hilarious I don't understand what you mean. Can you please point me to resources to help inform me instead of pointing and laughing?

Much of Europe is in a recession, or has stagnant economic growth at best. They've had left leaning governments for too long, and economic stagnation is the natural result of that. You can't regulate your way to prosperity.

Interesting theory.

So the UK with 14 years of right wing rule should be humming, but it isn't. Now you're going to claim that "oh, the Tories weren't right wing enough". Nonsense.

Then I'll point out that 12 of the last 16 years in America have been under left wing governments. All filled with policies that a right winger like yourself would no doubt abhor. TARP, Obamacare, CHIPS Act, Inflation Reduction Act - massively left wing. State subsidies handed out left and right, and the American economy grew massively during that time. "Oh, Obama and Biden are actually right wing by European standards". Sure buddy.

Your simplistic world view leads to wrong conclusions, which you'll try to No-True-Scotsman your way out of. None of us are buying it though.

Your worship of right wing ideology saddles you with a crackpot who fires nuclear safety personnel and then attempts to hire them back 2 days later. Spare us the lecture.

Post reply on HN