6 ms·

I'm not American, but it seems this has been going for weeks now. Are these changes/this access to various things actually impacting normal Americans at all? I

I'm not American, but it seems this has been going for weeks now. Are these changes/this access to various things actually impacting normal Americans at all? I understand the impact on government workers, but I'm curious if this is actually changing peoples lives in any way. We were barraged for 6 months about how Twitter would fall over the next day when Elon took over there and took a radical stance, and it just didn't. I'm curious if this will be similar.

jarsin 2y ago
The average American rarely deals directly with the federal government.
- iAMkenough 2y ago
  But the effects cascade down to other levels of government, service providers and businesses in their area.
- throwway120385 2y ago
  The average American files their tax return with the IRS once a year. The IRS just lost 15,000 employees. This tax season is going to make 2020 look smooth and efficient and fast.
  - jarsin 2y ago
    The average american uses the one page form 1040 ez and just sends it in electronicly or in the mail.
    - ac29 2y ago
      1040EZ was discontinued in 2018.
    - gs17 2y ago
      And fortunately, Musk only said he "deleted" the IRS's Direct File program and people might get to use it one last time.
  - brianmurphy 2y ago
    But what did those 15k people do? If their job was to audit family and small biz returns, I don't think anyone will miss them.
    - Izkata 2y ago
      I can't say what these specific 15k were doing, but the IRS was in the middle of a hiring spree: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/04/irs-hire-30000-employees-over-next-two-years/384897/ https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/04/irs-hire-30000-emp... So it seems like this just puts is back to how it was in 2023. Doesn't seem like a drastic change.
- voganmother42 2y ago
  Yeah Americans are all super healthy and blessed so we dont need healthcare
alaithea 2y ago
Tens of thousands of people are now out of work, with more to join them soon. The job market is already tight. That is going to have ripple effects throughout communities all over the country. We will probably see an uptick in housing foreclosures. At the same time, grant money for community support programs has been turned off, so these folks will have a harder time getting help. Farmers who produced food that was sent abroad by USAID are not getting paid, and will have stock piling up that they don't have a buyer for. Scientific and health agencies have been muzzled during a time when we are fighting bird flu (millions of flocks dying), there has been human transmission and there is a high risk of another pandemic (bird flu or anything else) coming along. People will die who wouldn't otherwise have to. The agency which protects Americans from predatory bank fees has been shuttered, so we can expect our banking (like $35 late fees) to get more expensive. I could go on and on, but our country is not Twitter; it's not even comparable, on almost any level.
- drstewart 2y ago
  > I could go on and on Could you go on and on with any actual examples since all of your statements were riddled with "probablies" and "mights" and "wills"?
  - thunderfork 2y ago
    [dead]
  - alaithea 2y ago
    All my statements started with a concrete fact, all of which are easily found in current news articles. Perhaps you should go do some reading.
    - drstewart 2y ago
      Maybe the sky will fall too!
  - thunderfork 2y ago
    [dead]
johnnyanmac 2y ago
>I understand the impact on government workers, but I'm curious if this is actually changing peoples lives in any way. Well, our inflation rose to 3% in a month, a few people have died over all these illegal spending freezes, we had a repeat of the Saturday Night Massacre[0] where 6 or 7 judges resigned due to Trump wanting to basically hold blackmail over a corrupt Mayor's case to be temporarily dropped. Those are the most immediate and obvious effects seen after one month off the top of my head. >Elon took over there and took a radical stance, and it just didn't. I'm curious if this will be similar. I don't know why people say this when Twitter had clear changes to day to day use. Let alone to anyone investing in Twitter. Smaller content creators get even less organic engagement, celebrities are harassed more because of blocking changes, commenters get worse, more toxic community. The effects only aren't felt if you use Twitter to get news and you avoid comments, or an account. Even then Twitter makes it harder to view stuff without an account. The fall of Rome took years, if not decades. If you're just expecting anything software to collapse like a demolition project you need perspective on how people define "drastic". ---- On topic: no, don't compare this to Twitter that no one needs in a day to day. The US economy will get noticeably worse, jobs will be harder to find and more people will be let go, The GDP will fall, and if March goes horribly a lot of old people will be on the the street dying. It's not going to all happen in one day, but lives will be lost over these reckless changes. The US isn't exactly doing too well with foreign policy either so that'll be the most obvious effect for you. Our country will probably shift to rely less on us goods. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre
- Amezarak 2y ago
  Prosecutors resigned, not judges. March will be no different than January.
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    March is when congress decides on a budget. Aka the first legal time in Trump 47 administration that they can actually influence the budget. Some GOP propositions propositions include Medicare cuts and overall trying to lower the budget by 33% IIRC. I'd bet good money we're going to see a bloodbath in the Capitol, be it among congress, or among the people reacting to whatever results happen.
climb_stealth 2y ago
N = 1, but I have friends in the US who lost their job because of the recent budget or grant cuts or whatever it was. They are very much non-tech normal people and considering options to emigrate. So yes, there are real people being affected by this.
- gottorf 2y ago
  > They are very much non-tech normal people and considering options to emigrate Normal people don't consider leaving their country over losing one job.
  - SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
    In many cases it's not just one job. NIH grant funding, for example, remains frozen with no explanation of when it's going to restart. If I were in biomedical research I'd definitely be looking for options in other countries rather than rolling the dice on a potential 4 year pause in my career.
  - climb_stealth 2y ago
    I guess. In this case maybe normal people that are priviledged enough to consider emigrating. What I meant is people with real and constructive professions. That happen to be affected by federal decisions. I'm saying that with a bit of self-deprivation. These people in my opinion bring value to society with their jobs. In contrast to many IT roles where that can be a bit questionable sometimes. My own employment included.
stevenwoo 2y ago
Series of posts by former Department of Labor economist and professor starts with: https://bsky.app/profile/jrothst.bsky.social/post/3liin7up3ck2z https://bsky.app/profile/jrothst.bsky.social/post/3liin7up3c... It seems almost unavoidable at this point that we are headed for a deep, deep recession. Just based on 200K+ federal firings & pullback of contracts, the March employment report (to be released April 4) seems certain to show bigger job losses than any month ever outside of a few in 2008-9 and 2020. Higher unemployment leads to lower consumer spending - the USA economy is built on consumer spending.
- xnx 2y ago
  Walmart expects lower consumer spending: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/walmart-forecasts-sales-fiscal-2026-revenue-below-estimates-cautious-spending-2025-02-20/ https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/walmart-for...
dennis_jeeves2 2y ago
>and it just didn't. I'm curious if this will be similar. If I were to bet on it, yes it will be similar. My guess is that things will over all be better 3/4 years from now, after some initial pain.
dragonwriter 2y ago
> understand the impact on government workers, but I'm curious if this is actually changing peoples lives in any way. The effects have started to be felt, but nowhere near the lecel they will be if things continue much longer this way; as well as the directed impacts, a generale economic slowdown is expected as a fairly near-term second ordee effect. Lots of direct job losses plus people holding off spending because of a cloud of uncertainty is a great way to make a recession. https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/impact-of-trump-federal-funding-freeze-uncertainty-takes-human-toll/ https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/impact-of-trump-federal-...
superultra 2y ago
Twitter is replete with bots, videos rarely work, and it’s almost entirely tilted to the right side of the political spectrum. Twitter didn’t fall over the next day but there’s no disputing it’s a worse platform than it was.
gs17 2y ago
My university announced a temporary freeze on PhD admissions due to issues with federal funding, with many departments announcing that they cannot accept any new students, and I know we're not the only one. A lot of people are wondering if they'll have a job in a year, myself included. They've already damaged research/education, even if somehow it all gets undone. There's absolutely no reason to cause a brain drain in a country that has historically attracted students from all over the world.
mrguyorama 2y ago
A homeless shelter down the road will be closing in a few days and putting ten families onto the street. It's colder than your freezer outside, and the city already cleared out all the camps a year ago, so these people might literally die. Children. Babies. People who have lived here for generations but consistent ratcheting up of rents means they can no longer live anywhere. The expanded ACA tax subsidies are very unlikely to be renewed. This will result in about 5.6 million Americans (26% of the people with marketplace insurance) who can no longer afford healthcare and are left to rely on emergency rooms, which is a cost we all end up bearing anyway. Our allies have lost all trust for us. They already hated Trump in his first term because he was stupid and confrontational and transactional in a truly ignorant way, and him getting re-elected after some pretty obvious poor governing means that our allies no longer trust not just our government, but the actual people who voted him in. The ignorance and pettiness and hatred of the American voter means investing in the US as an ally has become a very stupid thing to do. I'm cancelling a vacation outside the US because I have no interest in interacting with border agents who feel empowered and vindictive. I already cannot travel to certain US states where a pregnancy scare can become a crime. Our state economy has been buoyed nicely by the shitload of Asylum seekers from all over the world who are educated and just want to work, but are often not allowed to for dumb reasons. Lack of funding and a hostile immigration environment will only hasten the death of our state, which has a very old population. Three large parts of our economy are: Lumber trade with Canada, Tourism with a lot of that coming from China, and selling lobster to China. With another trade war, that's all fucked. Before China became a buyer of our lobster, the industry was dying because they were catching too much and they had to keep selling lobster for cheaper than ground beef. The farmers up state who grow potatoes will be fine, since it's been industrialized since before I was born. Everything else we grow is going to get a lot more expensive with less migrant labor, so I hope you don't like broccoli. Alternatively, we replace migrant labor with chain gang workers from the local prisons and enjoy the (literal) fruits of slavery.

jarsin 2y ago

The average American rarely deals directly with the federal government.

iAMkenough 2y ago
But the effects cascade down to other levels of government, service providers and businesses in their area.
throwway120385 2y ago
The average American files their tax return with the IRS once a year. The IRS just lost 15,000 employees. This tax season is going to make 2020 look smooth and efficient and fast.
- jarsin 2y ago
  The average american uses the one page form 1040 ez and just sends it in electronicly or in the mail.
  - ac29 2y ago
    1040EZ was discontinued in 2018.
  - gs17 2y ago
    And fortunately, Musk only said he "deleted" the IRS's Direct File program and people might get to use it one last time.
- brianmurphy 2y ago
  But what did those 15k people do? If their job was to audit family and small biz returns, I don't think anyone will miss them.
  - Izkata 2y ago
    I can't say what these specific 15k were doing, but the IRS was in the middle of a hiring spree: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/04/irs-hire-30000-employees-over-next-two-years/384897/ https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/04/irs-hire-30000-emp... So it seems like this just puts is back to how it was in 2023. Doesn't seem like a drastic change.
voganmother42 2y ago
Yeah Americans are all super healthy and blessed so we dont need healthcare

alaithea 2y ago

Tens of thousands of people are now out of work, with more to join them soon. The job market is already tight. That is going to have ripple effects throughout communities all over the country. We will probably see an uptick in housing foreclosures. At the same time, grant money for community support programs has been turned off, so these folks will have a harder time getting help. Farmers who produced food that was sent abroad by USAID are not getting paid, and will have stock piling up that they don't have a buyer for. Scientific and health agencies have been muzzled during a time when we are fighting bird flu (millions of flocks dying), there has been human transmission and there is a high risk of another pandemic (bird flu or anything else) coming along. People will die who wouldn't otherwise have to. The agency which protects Americans from predatory bank fees has been shuttered, so we can expect our banking (like $35 late fees) to get more expensive. I could go on and on, but our country is not Twitter; it's not even comparable, on almost any level.

drstewart 2y ago
> I could go on and on Could you go on and on with any actual examples since all of your statements were riddled with "probablies" and "mights" and "wills"?
- thunderfork 2y ago
  [dead]
- alaithea 2y ago
  All my statements started with a concrete fact, all of which are easily found in current news articles. Perhaps you should go do some reading.
  - drstewart 2y ago
    Maybe the sky will fall too!
- thunderfork 2y ago
  [dead]

johnnyanmac 2y ago

>I understand the impact on government workers, but I'm curious if this is actually changing peoples lives in any way. Well, our inflation rose to 3% in a month, a few people have died over all these illegal spending freezes, we had a repeat of the Saturday Night Massacre[0] where 6 or 7 judges resigned due to Trump wanting to basically hold blackmail over a corrupt Mayor's case to be temporarily dropped. Those are the most immediate and obvious effects seen after one month off the top of my head. >Elon took over there and took a radical stance, and it just didn't. I'm curious if this will be similar. I don't know why people say this when Twitter had clear changes to day to day use. Let alone to anyone investing in Twitter. Smaller content creators get even less organic engagement, celebrities are harassed more because of blocking changes, commenters get worse, more toxic community. The effects only aren't felt if you use Twitter to get news and you avoid comments, or an account. Even then Twitter makes it harder to view stuff without an account. The fall of Rome took years, if not decades. If you're just expecting anything software to collapse like a demolition project you need perspective on how people define "drastic". ---- On topic: no, don't compare this to Twitter that no one needs in a day to day. The US economy will get noticeably worse, jobs will be harder to find and more people will be let go, The GDP will fall, and if March goes horribly a lot of old people will be on the the street dying. It's not going to all happen in one day, but lives will be lost over these reckless changes. The US isn't exactly doing too well with foreign policy either so that'll be the most obvious effect for you. Our country will probably shift to rely less on us goods. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

Amezarak 2y ago
Prosecutors resigned, not judges. March will be no different than January.
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  March is when congress decides on a budget. Aka the first legal time in Trump 47 administration that they can actually influence the budget. Some GOP propositions propositions include Medicare cuts and overall trying to lower the budget by 33% IIRC. I'd bet good money we're going to see a bloodbath in the Capitol, be it among congress, or among the people reacting to whatever results happen.

climb_stealth 2y ago

N = 1, but I have friends in the US who lost their job because of the recent budget or grant cuts or whatever it was. They are very much non-tech normal people and considering options to emigrate. So yes, there are real people being affected by this.

gottorf 2y ago
> They are very much non-tech normal people and considering options to emigrate Normal people don't consider leaving their country over losing one job.
- SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
  In many cases it's not just one job. NIH grant funding, for example, remains frozen with no explanation of when it's going to restart. If I were in biomedical research I'd definitely be looking for options in other countries rather than rolling the dice on a potential 4 year pause in my career.
- climb_stealth 2y ago
  I guess. In this case maybe normal people that are priviledged enough to consider emigrating. What I meant is people with real and constructive professions. That happen to be affected by federal decisions. I'm saying that with a bit of self-deprivation. These people in my opinion bring value to society with their jobs. In contrast to many IT roles where that can be a bit questionable sometimes. My own employment included.

stevenwoo 2y ago

Series of posts by former Department of Labor economist and professor starts with: https://bsky.app/profile/jrothst.bsky.social/post/3liin7up3ck2z https://bsky.app/profile/jrothst.bsky.social/post/3liin7up3c... It seems almost unavoidable at this point that we are headed for a deep, deep recession. Just based on 200K+ federal firings & pullback of contracts, the March employment report (to be released April 4) seems certain to show bigger job losses than any month ever outside of a few in 2008-9 and 2020. Higher unemployment leads to lower consumer spending - the USA economy is built on consumer spending.

xnx 2y ago
Walmart expects lower consumer spending: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/walmart-forecasts-sales-fiscal-2026-revenue-below-estimates-cautious-spending-2025-02-20/ https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/walmart-for...

dennis_jeeves2 2y ago

>and it just didn't. I'm curious if this will be similar. If I were to bet on it, yes it will be similar. My guess is that things will over all be better 3/4 years from now, after some initial pain.

dragonwriter 2y ago

> understand the impact on government workers, but I'm curious if this is actually changing peoples lives in any way. The effects have started to be felt, but nowhere near the lecel they will be if things continue much longer this way; as well as the directed impacts, a generale economic slowdown is expected as a fairly near-term second ordee effect. Lots of direct job losses plus people holding off spending because of a cloud of uncertainty is a great way to make a recession. https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/impact-of-trump-federal-funding-freeze-uncertainty-takes-human-toll/ https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/18/impact-of-trump-federal-...

superultra 2y ago

Twitter is replete with bots, videos rarely work, and it’s almost entirely tilted to the right side of the political spectrum. Twitter didn’t fall over the next day but there’s no disputing it’s a worse platform than it was.

gs17 2y ago

My university announced a temporary freeze on PhD admissions due to issues with federal funding, with many departments announcing that they cannot accept any new students, and I know we're not the only one. A lot of people are wondering if they'll have a job in a year, myself included. They've already damaged research/education, even if somehow it all gets undone. There's absolutely no reason to cause a brain drain in a country that has historically attracted students from all over the world.

mrguyorama 2y ago

A homeless shelter down the road will be closing in a few days and putting ten families onto the street. It's colder than your freezer outside, and the city already cleared out all the camps a year ago, so these people might literally die. Children. Babies. People who have lived here for generations but consistent ratcheting up of rents means they can no longer live anywhere. The expanded ACA tax subsidies are very unlikely to be renewed. This will result in about 5.6 million Americans (26% of the people with marketplace insurance) who can no longer afford healthcare and are left to rely on emergency rooms, which is a cost we all end up bearing anyway. Our allies have lost all trust for us. They already hated Trump in his first term because he was stupid and confrontational and transactional in a truly ignorant way, and him getting re-elected after some pretty obvious poor governing means that our allies no longer trust not just our government, but the actual people who voted him in. The ignorance and pettiness and hatred of the American voter means investing in the US as an ally has become a very stupid thing to do. I'm cancelling a vacation outside the US because I have no interest in interacting with border agents who feel empowered and vindictive. I already cannot travel to certain US states where a pregnancy scare can become a crime. Our state economy has been buoyed nicely by the shitload of Asylum seekers from all over the world who are educated and just want to work, but are often not allowed to for dumb reasons. Lack of funding and a hostile immigration environment will only hasten the death of our state, which has a very old population. Three large parts of our economy are: Lumber trade with Canada, Tourism with a lot of that coming from China, and selling lobster to China. With another trade war, that's all fucked. Before China became a buyer of our lobster, the industry was dying because they were catching too much and they had to keep selling lobster for cheaper than ground beef. The farmers up state who grow potatoes will be fine, since it's been industrialized since before I was born. Everything else we grow is going to get a lot more expensive with less migrant labor, so I hope you don't like broccoli. Alternatively, we replace migrant labor with chain gang workers from the local prisons and enjoy the (literal) fruits of slavery.