3 ms·

Closing air traffic would be sufficient to make it a very big deal without all of the pain being focused on people who have little political voice. The economi

by rz2k 13y ago

Closing air traffic would be sufficient to make it a very big deal without all of the pain being focused on people who have little political voice. The economic fallout would be terrible for everyone, but once upon a time that would prevented a shutdown in the first place.

Jtsummers 13y ago
It would also cripple the entire economy. Having that as a risk would almost certainly prevent a shutdown, but should a shutdown occur it would take months for some sectors to recover, and probably years or never for many others. Tourism, foreign visitors and domestic travelers. Shipping, which impacts not just FedEX, UPS and their ilk, but all the businesses needing to ship things or to receive shipments. It could be a boon for the rail and trucking industries, if only rail didn't also depend, to some extent, on federal activities. Trucking would be able to continue, but would never be able to keep up with demand. Of course, how much effect does the federal government have on the movement of oil (refined and unrefined) into and out of the country? Taking this further, we have no import/export anymore. Either that or both become entirely unregulated. No border agents so free immigration (well, illegal once the gov't starts up again, but who's stopping them) for all. So I suppose, unless we are anarchists (which I'm not) or desire the end of the US (which I don't), then leaving a few things running makes sense.
- rz2k 13y ago
  However, you have to keep some perspective. How would a one day stop compare to a large winter storm's effect on aviation? How would it compare to the days after 9/11, or the early August 1981 air traffic controller strike? It's difficult to gauge the effect of a one day cessation of air traffic in comparison to, a week (or two?) of the services that are being shut down now, and say it is necessarily worse. How would it compare to the economic fallout of putting off progress in health care yet another decade or two? Furthermore, maintaining focus on keeping perspective, even a single day delay in payments on US securities could be the economic equivalent of the apocalypse, and yet that seems to be on the table for the craziest of the crazy legislators. There's a lot of discussion about what would make the issue more concrete, and people talk tough about how Congress shouldn't be paid. If they really wanted to inspire them to find a quick solution, maybe all general aviation across the country could be shut down. The economic fallout would be much less, but people who get a direct line to congressmen would tell them to get to work.

by rz2k 13y ago

Jtsummers 13y ago

It would also cripple the entire economy. Having that as a risk would almost certainly prevent a shutdown, but should a shutdown occur it would take months for some sectors to recover, and probably years or never for many others. Tourism, foreign visitors and domestic travelers. Shipping, which impacts not just FedEX, UPS and their ilk, but all the businesses needing to ship things or to receive shipments. It could be a boon for the rail and trucking industries, if only rail didn't also depend, to some extent, on federal activities. Trucking would be able to continue, but would never be able to keep up with demand. Of course, how much effect does the federal government have on the movement of oil (refined and unrefined) into and out of the country? Taking this further, we have no import/export anymore. Either that or both become entirely unregulated. No border agents so free immigration (well, illegal once the gov't starts up again, but who's stopping them) for all. So I suppose, unless we are anarchists (which I'm not) or desire the end of the US (which I don't), then leaving a few things running makes sense.

rz2k 13y ago
However, you have to keep some perspective. How would a one day stop compare to a large winter storm's effect on aviation? How would it compare to the days after 9/11, or the early August 1981 air traffic controller strike? It's difficult to gauge the effect of a one day cessation of air traffic in comparison to, a week (or two?) of the services that are being shut down now, and say it is necessarily worse. How would it compare to the economic fallout of putting off progress in health care yet another decade or two? Furthermore, maintaining focus on keeping perspective, even a single day delay in payments on US securities could be the economic equivalent of the apocalypse, and yet that seems to be on the table for the craziest of the crazy legislators. There's a lot of discussion about what would make the issue more concrete, and people talk tough about how Congress shouldn't be paid. If they really wanted to inspire them to find a quick solution, maybe all general aviation across the country could be shut down. The economic fallout would be much less, but people who get a direct line to congressmen would tell them to get to work.