• NRay7882@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Take away pay from house & senate members while the government is shut down, they don’t deserve the special treatment. Then we’ll see how fast this all gets resolved.

    • Taldan@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      People keep suggesting this without thinking it through

      Many congress members are quite wealthy. They could easily go without their salary at all, for their entire tenure. These people tend to make money off stock trading (at suspiciously high rates, but that’s a different discussion), in addition to other investments and “consulting” generating revenue for them

      There are, however, at least a few congress members that are not independently wealthy. Those members are actually working class and rely on their salary to live. Those people are the ones that will be squeezed without a paycheck

      What do you think the end result of that will be?

      The wealthy members of congress will be able to use shutdowns as a bludgeon to force the working class members to vote in line with them. The wealthy can hold out indefinitely. The working class can only hold out until rent is past-due

      Long term, I’d expect to see two other knock-on effects. Working class members of congress will be heavily incentivized to start making very good stock picks to have backup income, or more outright corruption. The second effect would be a chilling effect on working class candidates even running for congress

      Does that sound like a positive outcome? Are those the incentives you want in congress?

      • NRay7882@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        We could have both, reform for leadership performing trades AND we can stop paying them when the government shuts down. But this story was about the FAA workers who don’t get paid with stocks.

        • Taldan@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          We could have both, reform for leadership performing trades AND we can stop paying them when the government shuts down

          Okay, so we give a lot of power to the wealthy members of congress. It doesn’t change the fundamental calculus that your suggestion would shift power from working class members of congress to the wealthy members. Even without insider trading, many of them are multi-millionaires and will not care at all that they don’t receive their salary for a while

          But this story was about the FAA workers who don’t get paid with stocks

          That one has an easy solution that doesn’t involve giving more power to the wealthy: Continue paying ATC during the shutdown

          A much better generalized solution would instead to be forced budget continuation. Can’t pass a bill? The old budget continues until you do

    • CatAssTrophy@safest.space
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      3 days ago

      Upvoted you, but they frequently fly out of smaller/private airports that don’t have direct ATC control anyway, so it’s unlikely that’s a significant contributor to a solution. Though I definitely agree it should be done at whatever scale it can be to improve general conditions.

      • flynnguy@programming.dev
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        2 days ago

        I’d imagine a lot of private jets do fly IFR though which does involve ATC. So even if they fly out of a non towered airport, they probably file their IFR plan with a towered airport and start talking to them once in the air.

      • SpermHowitzer@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Most of the airports that private jets fly in and out of do have a tower. Also, there’s a lot of ground holds recently due to en route controller shortages which limits how much traffic can be in the air, which of course affects private jets as well.

        • rarbg@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          Yeah but lots of those towered smaller airports are staffed by contractor companies where the controllers are still getting paid normally rn

  • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 days ago

    I, for one, am incredibly excited to see widespread inconvenience for the middle class. Hopefully this will wake some of these people the fuck up. The super rich still won’t be effected enough, but maybe this will help stir up some malcontent against Orange Julius from the people unaffected by SNAP cuts.

  • finitebanjo@piefed.world
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    3 days ago

    Gorsh, if only the FAA had more employees. Did the FAA use to have more employees? What happened to them? /sarcasm

    • Barbecue Cowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      Honestly, I wonder how long til we have to close down an airport because staff just stops showing up entirely. I feel like absenteeism has to have gone exponential.

      With the expense of flights, I also do think a lot about whether or not this disproportionately affects demographics who were more likely to have voted for Trump.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I’m still trying to process the fact that a moron known for being on “The Real World” is Transportation Secretary. And it’s been months.

  • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 days ago

    Mother fucker. My wife my toddler and I are supposed to fly out on the 15th.

    I really hope I don’t get stuck in like… Delaware… With a 2 year old and no way home.

    Oh well small price to pay for insurance coverage for folks that probably voted against their best interests.

    I guess.

  • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 days ago

    The shutdown accelerated this, but it’s far from the root cause. Even when it lifts, it’s still on a bad trajectory.

    Can’t reduce training standards without causing lots of other problems.

    Automation in older ways is possible but complicated. More modern AI would be a disaster. Though they might try.

    There isn’t really an answer. Air travel can’t continue as it was, and there aren’t enough plans for trains to come close to making up for it.