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

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

kcrw.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 774 posts

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

#331

Post by derriz »

spwa4 wrote: post #259
derriz wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Household wealth inequality has also fallen significantly in Ireland. Longer term statistics are more difficult to find compared to income inequality but see Chart 3 here - https://www.centralbank.ie/statistics/statistical-publicatio... - provides a 12 year time series which proves this. Irish property prices are and have risen considerably - but "600%", I think, is a somewhat dramatic way to present the increases -…

True this is bullshit. The government has a direct policy of wealth transfer from the population to itself and banks, who have "foreign" (except of course not really, for the worst example look at the board of the "gift to Ireland" national wealth fund and how the very young board members have no qualifications or experience and DO have family in government ...) ownership. Which, conveniently, isn't counted in the Gi…

Again, the statistics and numbers completely contradict this narrative. We have a statistic - income redistribution - which effectively measures government policy in this regard.

For example, Ireland's redistribution of income from rich to poor does more to reduce inequality than any other country in the OECD. The numbers are here: https://ourworldindata.org/income-inequality-before-and-afte... or look at Figure 1 on page 10 here: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/report...

And in figure 3, page 11 of the above report, Ireland has seen the 3rd highest growth in income redistribution in the OECD with redistribution from wealthy to poor growing by 40% in the space of a decade

So as far as I can see the facts indicate that Irish government policy is the exact opposite of what you claim.

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

#332

Post by mizzao »

linguae wrote: post #57
spwa4 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because a LOT of people have been left out of economic progress in Europe especially, and in the US. They want, even need change, and Trump came with a "believable" story for change. As in, more change than a president Harris would have delivered. Unless we get economic progress more equally spread this will get worse and worse.

I don’t know enough about economic conditions in Europe to say something intelligent, but unfortunately I’m very pessimistic about the near- and medium-term future of America. There’s nothing on the horizon that will make life better for everyday Americans, who are currently struggling to keep up with the sharp rise in the cost of living in recent years. From tariffs to business uncertainties, all I see is life getti…

Really astute, non-political, and objectively accurate summary of the situation, in my opinion. Thank you for your writing.

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

#333

Post by BobbyJo »

The Federal Reserve is an example of a well run and focused organization, because they have a very short, very simple mandate: maximize employment and ensure price stability. Everything they do is in service to those two goals and every employee can hold themselves and their bosses accountable for those goals. Elected representatives and the American public can hold them accountable.

If we want a more efficient and inspiring NASA, we need to give it a mandate that we can all rally around the same way. "Pioneering the future of..." is just too generic for anyone to grade them against. As long as that's the case, congress is free to run it into the ground as a pork barrel repository.

IMO, several smaller, more focused, more measurable, organizations would serve the American public far better.

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

#334

Post by DSingularity »

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.

[flagged]

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

#335

Post by ceejayoz »

DSingularity wrote: post #334
noobermin wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

> I won’t cry if it is dismantled.

You will if the private replacement is much worse.

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

#336

Post by Pfhortune »

DSingularity wrote: post #334
noobermin wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

What do you propose to replace those institutions? The needs thereof do not go away. For-profits in the private sector? Are they going to be feeding Gazans?

You don’t fix a house’s plumbing by detonating a bomb under the foundation.

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

#337

Post by lenkite »

giantg2 wrote: post #243
jebarker wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their science missions are inspiring, but not as inspiring as they ought to be Are they 1% as inspiring as what the DoD does with their budget? I don't mean to be snarky, but level of inspiration is pretty subjective and difficult to put a price tag on. Honestly, I feel like the NASA budget needs to be considered in context relative to the DoD budget and then these cuts look much less convincing as being necessary.

"Are they 1% as inspiring as what the DoD does with their budget?" It would be closer to 2%, but we could measure it by engagement. Ask people what their last positive interaction was with NASA vs the military. The military does all sorts of outreach with things like the Blue Angels, stadium flyovers, competitions at fairs, etc. Ask them what NASA has done over the past year vs what the military has done over the pas…

Hello,

US Military FY 2024 enacted budget: ≈ $842 billion

VS

NASA FY 2024 enacted budget: ≈ $24.9 billion

That is a ~35x multiplier. By bog-standard logical implication your question answers itself.

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

#338

Post by dragonwriter »

DSingularity wrote: post #334
noobermin wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

[flagged]

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

#339

Post by CPLX »

BobbyJo wrote: post #333

The Federal Reserve is an example of a well run and focused organization, because they have a very short, very simple mandate: maximize employment and ensure price stability. Everything they do is in service to those two goals and every employee can hold themselves and their bosses accountable for those goals. Elected representatives and the American public can hold them accountable. If we want a more efficient and i…

This is a ridiculous statement. The Fed is a profoundly undemocratic institution that harnesses the power of the state to serve the interests of capital, and its current form is a recent development that coincides with the financialization of our economy and the decimation of manufacturing and the middle class.

If you want the full argument it’s here: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/federal-reserve-independe...

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

#340

Post by nine_zeros »

giantg2 wrote: post #323
jzb wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The population of NC has grown about 30% in the last 20 years, but staffing has been capped. Wait times to get a license are ridiculous. https://www.wral.com/consumer/5onyourside/ncdmv-long-waits-d...

Yes, and they can't even fill the positions they have under that cap. '“Whether the root cause is a lack of money, that’s still to be determined. Or whether it’s how we’re spending the money that’s already appropriated,” Boliek said.' From your article.

> Yes, and they can't even fill the positions they have under that cap.

Yes, they can't even fill positions - that is how incompetent Republicans are.

Post reply on HN