The argument may be that contractors aren’t technically government employees. As part of the shrink-the-government-privatize-everything mania, a lot of position

The argument may be that contractors aren’t technically government employees. As part of the shrink-the-government-privatize-everything mania, a lot of positions are now filled by contractors from Booz Allen, Kelly Services, and a million other firms, large and small. These people work in government facilities, often side-by-side with “real” government employees whose paychecks come straight from Uncle Sam. However, this argument totally misses the point. Some of these contractors aren’t getting paid either—and I’m not sure if contractors always get back pay. They are also limited in what they can—-and are allowed— to do without their government counterparts. Finally, the bigger picture is that these folks, along with federal employees, are part of a broader R&D ecosystem. Like a real ecosystem, if you keep destabilizing it, it’ll eventually fall apart.