Sad to say but this will be the norm for the next 4 years, don’t expect any federal organization to come out intact. I’ve basically ruled out working as a federal employee as there’s no assurances about anything.
Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
11–20 of 587 posts
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#12[flagged]
The real question is, what negatively changed when the debt went from 600k to 666k? What about 500k to 600k? What will negatively change if it goes from 666k to 700k?
I hear a lot about the debt going up. Not once have I ever heard what the consequences of this debt are to the regular tax payer. None of these cuts are going to give normal people significant tax cuts, and cutting all these programs certainly doesn't seem like it'll positively impact people's lives. Research investment more than pays people back not just in terms of money, but quality of life. Same goes for general maintenance.
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#13[flagged]
The vast majority of federal spending goes to the military (including Veterans Affairs), Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and debt interest. Everything else doesn't matter much. This is especially true given that Republicans will probably increase the deficit; any money saved will go to tax cuts for the rich, and then some.
For example:
> The Senate on Friday forged ahead with plans to give the military an additional $150 billion in spending even as the Pentagon seeks to make sweeping changes and reductions in its budget. Senators voted 52-48 in favor of a budget resolution that will unlock $340 billion in spending for U.S.-Mexico border security, energy independence, Coast Guard modernization and military investments while mandating cuts elsewhere.
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2025-02-21/senate-milita...
Worrying about small amounts of M while increasing other parts with B makes me wonder how it could be perceived that there's any actual interest in a "balanced budget." The only president to balance the budget was Clinton, and it was an economically terrible idea.
Government budgets are not like a company's budget or a family's budget, and pretending that it is, when we control the reserve currency of the world, is just plain silly and weak.
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#14[flagged]
The real question is, what negatively changed when the debt went from 600k to 666k? What about 500k to 600k? What will negatively change if it goes from 666k to 700k? I hear a lot about the debt going up. Not once have I ever heard what the consequences of this debt are to the regular tax payer. None of these cuts are going to give normal people significant tax cuts, and cutting all these programs certainly doesn't s…
The consequences are inflation. However, as long as there isn't inflation, it's just fine. And there are other sources of inflation, like energy crises, outside of spending based inflation.
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#15[flagged]
> Everyone whose funding is cut/questioned says it's wrong Everyone who made billions off the internet is too busy smelling their own farts to recognize that none of this waves hand in the general direction of basically all modern technology would exist without the sustained government funding that built ARPAnet and NSFNET.
I think you miss a critical fact:
They absolutely understand that. They also see money/power as a finite resource and absolutely do not want any new competition to emerge via anything that could be created or funded by anything they do not control.
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#16[flagged]
[deleted]
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#17What a horrible outcome! NIST is, for most of its services, a self-funded agency and they define the acceptable standards for new tech. This makes no sense. Edit: Too much time on screen today. My apologies for muddying the waters!
Who said anything about NIST?
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Everyone whose funding is cut/questioned says it's wrong Everyone who made billions off the internet is too busy smelling their own farts to recognize that none of this waves hand in the general direction of basically all modern technology would exist without the sustained government funding that built ARPAnet and NSFNET.
I think you miss a critical fact: They absolutely understand that. They also see money/power as a finite resource and absolutely do not want any new competition to emerge via anything that could be created or funded by anything they do not control.
You're certainly right in some cases, though I do think its a mix of truths.
Some of them do realize the actual situation and are ladder pulling, but mixed in with that there's also a pervasive offshoot of hyper narcissistic survivorship bias that in my experience a lot of modern tech entrepreneurs suffer from where they really are actually shockingly blind to the build-up of everything that they then built on.
Like the Internet existing for them is taken as just a given like the earth and the seas being here, but "taxi cabs you hail through the internet"... that's the real invention!
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#19[flagged]
> Everyone whose funding is cut/questioned says it's wrong Everyone who made billions off the internet is too busy smelling their own farts to recognize that none of this waves hand in the general direction of basically all modern technology would exist without the sustained government funding that built ARPAnet and NSFNET.
[deleted]
Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone
#20[flagged]
Also, who cares about the per citizen deficit when some of the wealthiest and largest companies pay no taxes?