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4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

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Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#311

Post by Aurornis »

parineum wrote: post #288
nine_zeros wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a specific question about a single point? Yes. For a nuanced answer, all providers are required. USPS and FedEx both serve meaningful markets.

Actually, a single point can prove you wrong but a lot of data is needed to prove you right. The reply mostly agreed with you, they said 4/5 was cheaper but 1/5 wasn't. Your statement implies 5/5 is cheaper, the other poster is the one that only needs one data point. > USPS and FedEx both serve meaningful markets. You from two replies ago would be shocked to hear that.

> The reply mostly agreed with you, they said 4/5 was cheaper but 1/5 wasn't

One clarification: The other 4/5 is split between UPS and USPS.

I’m fortunate to have drop boxes and shipping centers for all 3 providers near my house or on the way to the gym.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#312

Post by cma »

eagerpace wrote: post #298
eagerpace wrote: post #125

I’m trying to think how I feel about this. I’ve been obsessed with space for a long time, remember traveling to see my first rocket launch of the shuttle in 2006. Follow the commercial development closely since then. Their science missions are inspiring, but not as inspiring as they ought to be. NASA needs an overhaul. This isn’t how I would do it, but that’s not how things work in the real world. SLS is the elephant…

I hesitated posting this because my very moderate east coast American perspective seems to be appreciated less and less here. I posted this on a lazy Sunday morning and it got a lot of positive initial comments and discussion. Then a few hours later it turned negative. Science is great but launch vehicle innovation is where the problem is so that’s why I focused on SLS. We could easily have 100 JWSTs today if somethi…

Can you expand on what you mean by token uses? Wasn't Saturn V used for golf on the moon?

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#313

Post by EasyMark »

This is part of the new administration's war on science and education. They are actively gutting science, medicine, and education in order to shift wealth to the upper 0.1%. It's not about budgets or "woke", those are just excuses to dumb down America and reduce our position as a world leader in science and tech. A move in order to have short term gains for a few billionaires and an overarching goal to create a more religious and less educated society that is more easily controlled.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#314

Post by CydeWeys »

jgilias wrote: post #297
juujian wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this is efficiency. Our local NOAA office has lost their sparse janitorial staff. That doesn't make the agency more efficient. That just means an overworked person making 6 figures now has to figure out how to procure toilet paper and get the bathrooms fixed. It's obstructing people eager to do important work while marginally reducing cost, that's all it is.

I don’t think it actually reduces costs if someone better paid is now doing it instead.

No, payroll is still down, it's just that labor is now being used less efficiently and thus less useful work gets done.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#315

Post by debatem1 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #299
nine_zeros wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The flip side of that complaint is Democrats stuffing government bureaucracies with do-nothing jobs for their buddies. Both sides play in this cesspool. It would be nice if we as a nation could just do the work that needs to be done for the people without all of those games but it never has really been that way.

> Democrats stuffing government bureaucracies with do-nothing jobs for their buddies

Ignoring the partisanship this argument doesn't make sense on its face: government jobs pay extremely poorly. You might say "well what if you hold more than one of them?", but you can't do that: a federal employee can be employed in two different roles, but their pay is capped at 40 hours a week across the federal government.

Anyone keen on that level of grift has vastly better options in the private sector.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#316

Post by QuantumGood »

noobermin wrote: post #302
samrus wrote: post #153

I understand wanting to make the organization more efficient, but i don't think this is what's happening here. I think this is the classic republican strat of gutting federal agencies, pointing to the inefficiencies caused by the loss of institutional knowledge, and using that as an excuse to privatize to their friends. The fact that Elon's DOGE suggested these cuts lines up

It's not worth making this point anymore. Bannon et al have been explicit for decades now they want to destroy the federal government. It's ideological, that's it quite simply. All these discussions about efficiency, even more so the debt given they just blew up the debt to never before seen levels just shows that sincerity is not deserved when talking to Rs.

The "ecosystem" of polticial knowledge is balkanized in the U.S. (and elsewhere). "Making points" to those who are subscribed to a narrative fed from propaganda will not learn what they are told is not true. But noting causative "they say it's 'X', but it's actually 'Y'" feels more like simply properly labeling the information.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#317

Post by optimalsolver »

monkeyelite wrote: post #230
optimalsolver wrote: post #42

I always wonder how many caught up in these federal mass firings voted for Trump. I can't imagine they could've foreseen this outcome. USAID was probably a stronghold of Dem voters, but what about the Dept. of Agriculture, or the Forest Service?

Isn’t a criticism of democracy that individuals vote for their immediate benefit (MY job, MY housing) with no consideration of longer term consequences?

I suppose they're involuntarily practicing a high form of civic virtue, although that doesn't pay off the mortgage.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#318

Post by EasyMark »

eagerpace wrote: post #125

I’m trying to think how I feel about this. I’ve been obsessed with space for a long time, remember traveling to see my first rocket launch of the shuttle in 2006. Follow the commercial development closely since then. Their science missions are inspiring, but not as inspiring as they ought to be. NASA needs an overhaul. This isn’t how I would do it, but that’s not how things work in the real world. SLS is the elephant…

NASA like most government agencies could use a good, independent audit. That's not what this is. The DOGE lie was all about going in with pre-determined goals to reduce and to embarrass every org that they "audited". It was to "prove" MAGA world's criticism even if they were completely wrong (and the vast majority are). MAGA world "leaders" think that the US's role as a lead in science and top universities needs to be damaged in order to reduce our role in the world. It can then attempt to repair it with private tech billionaire solutions that are under their 100% control, instead of having to deal with government between them and profits.

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#319

Post by giantg2 »

nradov wrote: post #268
giantg2 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, the Moon landing was extremely agreessive and faced huge challenges yet was still achieved using technology and knowledge way behind what we have today. If we really wanted to put someone on Mars in the same aggressive manner as we had with the Moon, we could launch that mission by 2030 (travel time would take longer and there would be no return). The only real obstacle is the lack of will and money.

Nah. No amount of will and money could launch a Mars landing mission by 2030 with a reasonable chance of success. Some of the critical components don't exist yet and development can't be significantly accelerated. This is the real world, not a Michael Bay movie.

"Some of the critical components don't exist yet and development can't be significantly accelerated."

Such as?

Re: 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

#320

Post by QuantumGood »

nine_zeros wrote: post #194
samrus wrote: post #153

I understand wanting to make the organization more efficient, but i don't think this is what's happening here. I think this is the classic republican strat of gutting federal agencies, pointing to the inefficiencies caused by the loss of institutional knowledge, and using that as an excuse to privatize to their friends. The fact that Elon's DOGE suggested these cuts lines up

[flagged]

  "People really need to open their eyes"
This is not a prescription when the diagnosis is propaganda. The "solution" for individuals is more akin to deprogramming, and a systemic solution is large organizations (including government) fighting the ability for any media to be nearly 100% propaganda. Unfortunately, for many reasons, including social media, and individuals believing that others could simply "wake up" being a solution, practical systemic solutions don't exist / require new approaches.
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