> I see that life is still going on This may be something like the idea that life still goes on while you have 10% kidney function and for a certain amount of

> I see that life is still going on This may be something like the idea that life still goes on while you have 10% kidney function and for a certain amount of time after liver failure. Even when a system hasn't outright collapsed yet, that doesn't mean it isn't compromised or even approaching failure. The grandparent comment describes a situation for handling waste, waste that has serious impacts on the health of the environment. That's what you reduce to "paper and ink," so I'll assume you're part of the crowd that generally trivializes environmental concerns.... as if they've forgotten this is where they live and the food chain is how they eat. And then one day we wake up and it's perfectly normal to have a conversation about limiting our consumption of tuna and other fish because of mercury levels they contain as a consequence of uncontained industrial activity. Because we forgot that we're part of a system. Not surprising to see people do... but it is a little surprising to see it pop up on HN. Speaking of the food chain, here's some fun food for thought: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/food-and-cooking/sns-dailymeal-1968895-eat-avoid-these-foods-during-government-shutdown-011119-20190111-story.html https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/food-and-cook... Planning on flying anywhere? https://www.iheart.com/content/2019-01-04-air-traffic-controllers-union-warns-shutdown-is-making-air-travel-unsafe/ https://www.iheart.com/content/2019-01-04-air-traffic-contro... How sure are you that these jobs don't need to exist? These are just two examples. How sure are you that you really have any idea what the government does? Are you the kind of person who just deletes large swathes of code from a system because they're ugly, because they don't fit your aesthetics, because you're not sure what they do and you'd rather just re-write than find out?