Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit • Hacker News Board

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#81

Post by philipallstar » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:16 PM UTC

yndoendo wrote: post #68

philipallstar wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascists generally want everything centrally controlled. Not really a small government mindset.

I recommend _Culture in Nazi Germany_ by Michael H. Kater. [1] Propaganda was the control they wanted. 3rd party companies and organizations allowed for a pseud disconnect with the shared propaganda. See this paper, music group, artist supports our ideology and we are not paying them for it. Centrally controlled does not mean being centrally employed. Just take a look at all the big businesses that assisted fascism f…

I honestly don't understand this. Businesses have been doing loads of things along with the last government as well - silencing/reducing certain views while promoting others, and creating a monoculture throughout schools, universities, and businesses. Why do you only see it when this side does it (or some fraction of it)?

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#82

Post by Jtsummers » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:17 PM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #36

0xffff2 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the 100k are those that took the "deferred resignation program" at the beginning of the year. They have been getting paid to not bother showing up to work all this time, but are finally coming up on the date where they will all officially resign. Those people are choosing to leave.

Took? Or got placed on? Genuine question, because I don't know the answer. Was it actually voluntary at the time?

DRP was voluntary. Some people who took it would still have a job tomorrow if they hadn't. Others who took it were in a situation where they were likely going to get RIF'd. DRP gave them a better off-ramp than the severance package under a RIF. For them, it wasn't really voluntary but more a "Well, I'm losing my job anyways might as well get the best deal I can out of this shitty situation." Many others took it because they were going to retire this year anyways, so why not?

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#83

Post by actionfromafar » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:17 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #44

buran77 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the intention of this administration. Destroy any service that the government could provide until people can genuinely think the government is useless. Then the people currently in power and their cronies will come out of the woodwork "saving" the country with their private companies and interests. Competing with an empty shell of a government is the easiest way. As a side effect, if they're to lose the next e…

There is an ulterior motive for these cuts, but please be honest about what it is. The federal bureaucracy is completely dominated by one party: https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2016/10/federal-employe... . No matter who wins the elections, most of the actual decisions are being made by adherents of the same party. Trump had four times the support in AOC’s district in the Bronx than among federal employee donors.…

Don't worry, it's probably not a democracy anymore.

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#84

Post by philipallstar » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:17 PM UTC

sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #6

philipallstar wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascists generally want everything centrally controlled. Not really a small government mindset.

Have you noticed ICE's budget lately?

If anything, fascism has historically been pretty in favour of being in other countries without their permission.

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#85

Post by rockercoaster » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:18 PM UTC

oldandboring wrote: post #52

krainboltgreene wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same thought process behind layoffs and is categorically, scientifically, absurd. It doesn't pan out that you "only let go of the people you don't want" and it turns out those people you let go signal to the people you absolutely want that they should leave.

I don't support what the Trump administration is doing. But saying it's "categorically, scientifically, absurd" to lay people off is some next-level stuff. I can guarantee to anyone reading this, that this person has never owned a business with any kind of significant overhead.

[dead]

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#86

Post by timr » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:18 PM UTC

grumbelbart wrote: post #72

timr wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not terrified. Just to put some perspective on this, per Pew [1], the federal workforce excluding the postal service (which has actually shrunk as a semi-private employer) has grown by about 1% per year since 2000. As of 2024, it was at 2.4M people. The federal workforce is dramatically bigger than it was even a few years ago [2]. Moreover, the vast majority of federal workers don't have anything to do with the k…

> the federal workforce excluding the postal service (which has actually shrunk, as a semi-private employer) has grown by about 1% per year since 2000 That's less than it seems though, given that the US population has grown with over 0.7% per year for most of those years. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/usa/uni...

> That's less than it seems though, given that the US population has grown with over 0.7% per year for most of those years.

So what? Why does government have to grow proportionally with the size of the population? This is not a given in any other organization.

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#87

Post by actionfromafar » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:18 PM UTC

bix6 wrote: post #69

Can someone explain the DRP to me? I don’t understand why people got paid to take 8 months of leave if they resigned?

It's a quick and easy way to kneecap an organization. Who cares what it costs, it's only taxpayer money.

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#88

Post by buran77 » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:19 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #44

buran77 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the intention of this administration. Destroy any service that the government could provide until people can genuinely think the government is useless. Then the people currently in power and their cronies will come out of the woodwork "saving" the country with their private companies and interests. Competing with an empty shell of a government is the easiest way. As a side effect, if they're to lose the next e…

There is an ulterior motive for these cuts, but please be honest about what it is. The federal bureaucracy is completely dominated by one party: https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2016/10/federal-employe... . No matter who wins the elections, most of the actual decisions are being made by adherents of the same party. Trump had four times the support in AOC’s district in the Bronx than among federal employee donors.…

> This is not a sustainable situation in a democracy.

Purging your enemies from everything and instead putting your buddies (especially as dishonest and unqualified as the ones this admin brought) will fix the current "unsustainable" situation? Is it even marginally less bad? Because looking from the distance what they're doing is changing from "not great" to "awful" for democracy, and looking close up I'm sure it looks even worse.

There's not a single illegal, abusive, or plain stupid thing that this admin has done where you can't find some "silver lining" that allows you to dilute the problem and make it look like you're part of some solution. "And well, the implementation may not have been perfect but we're trying to fix things".

Nothing about this was for democracy or the country, and who those people donate do doesn't matter. Only who they don't donate to.

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#89

Post by toomuchtodo » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:26 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #71

toomuchtodo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have to experience the pain to vote better. And even then, I am not terribly hopeful, based on the evidence and observations.

By “better” you mean “more consistent with what I want,” right? Because your average Trump voter voted for the guy who had Elon get on stage with a chainsaw.

> By “better” you mean “more consistent with what I want,” right? Because your average Trump voter voted for the guy who had Elon get on stage with a chainsaw.

Do they want healthcare? Because I want Medicare for All (affordable, accessible, universal healthcare), and large swaths of conservative and rural America are going to lose their ~700 hospitals and Medicaid coverage (50% of rural births are paid for by Medicaid, a June 2025 KFF poll found that more than one in four (27%) adult Medicaid beneficiaries under age 65 are Republicans or lean Republican). Do they want to be able to export their ag to China? I was fine with farmers having their export market with federal subsidies, they voted against it (China has zeroed out US ag imports due to the tariff war, 75-80% of farmers voted for this admin). Do businesses want immigrant labor? I voted for it, they voted against it, and now they face crushing labor shortages in ag, construction, food services, hospitality, etc. Do they want their social security and veterans benefits and support systems? I voted for it, but they voted against it and now these social systems are going to rapidly degrade at scale. Do they want good paying jobs? I voted for it (pro worker, pro union, pro labor policies), they voted for the chainsaw (federal renewables subsidies cuts, federal gov workforce reductions, staunchly anti union positions, etc). Do they want universal daycare/childcare and school lunches? I want this for them, but they vote against this.

I want better for these people (accessible and affordable healthcare, childcare, social security, economic success broadly speaking to live healthy, fulfilled, meaningful lives), but they keep voting to hurt people like me, minorities, and vulnerability populations while shooting themselves in the feet. It's unfortunate. Having empathy is a terrible curse on this timeline. I can only ask them to vote better or I can stand back while they get the chainsaw. The choice lies with them.

"Too strong a belief in the rationality of people in general, or of the world, will lead us to seek purposive explanations where none exists."

Re: Largest Mass Resignation in US History as 100k Federal Workers Quit

#90

Post by rayiner » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:26 PM UTC

txru wrote: post #70

There are two elements of this situation that I'm consistently trying to open-mindedly hold in balance. One part is what I call "The Great Defederalization". In a myriad of ways, the federal state that was erected between FDR and LBJ is being torn down. That state existed on a group of decisions that allowed independent agencies outside of the direct oversight of the president: the Humphrey's Executor agencies, NLRB,…

The first point requires an additional layer. The modern administrative state has its origins in Woodrow Wilson ideology of scientific governance. Wilson didn’t like democracy and wasn’t much of a fan of the constitution: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-study-of-ad....

A consequence of centralizing governance in a giant federal bureaucracy is that it’s become dominated by one party: https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2016/10/federal-employe.... That was a predictable result of federalization. If the government is run by unelected bureaucrats insulated from the elected officials, then it’s completely unsurprising it will become dominated by the party that prefers bigger government.

In classic Trump fashion, he doesn’t care about federalism per se, hence his inconsistent actions on law enforcement and crime. But he has a brain stem level reaction that it’s crazy he got elected President and is expected to cajole a federal workforce of 1.8 million democrats into executing his policies. And he’s not wrong about that.

Regarding the DOJ, Thomas Jefferson personally directed the prosecution of Aaron Burr: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-great-trial-that-tes.... So that part isn’t anything new. As to the merits of the case, 18 USC 1001 is astonishingly (and I’d argue unconstitutionally) broad. I think prosecuting people for “obstruction” without an underlying crime is bullshit, but the government does it all the time. And Comey vociferously defended the practice.