[HN Gopher] Federal cuts disrupt repairs to iconic U.S. trails
___________________________________________________________________
Federal cuts disrupt repairs to iconic U.S. trails
Author : geox
Score : 143 points
Date : 2025-04-06 17:24 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (apnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (apnews.com)
| rcpt wrote:
| Brookings Institute has a good plot showing how much federal
| spending is being cut by this administration:
|
| https://www.brookings.edu/articles/tracking-federal-expendit...
|
| Turns out all the cuts are only a fraction of a percent of the
| federal budget. It's an ideological purge, nothing to do with
| efficiency at all.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| And between legal costs and the farm bailout for the tariffs,
| it shouldn't be surprising that this "efficiency"
| administration is blowing out our deficit by a few trillion
| dollars.
| SequoiaHope wrote:
| Yeah and the military is a third of our budget and no one in
| politics ever wants to cut that. There's so much excess
| spending there we could cut $300 billion a year from it and
| still be the world's bully. China builds infrastructure in
| other countries as a carrot to insinuate themselves in global
| affairs but we just build military bases as a stick. Seems like
| the former is a little bit better even if both approaches have
| issues.
| jimt1234 wrote:
| And, remove the tax exemption for churches and religious
| organizations. It's out of control. A friend of mine told me
| her church bought a five-story office building. They
| dedicated the minimum amount of office space to "religious
| services", and they rent out the rest of the offices. They
| pay no taxes on anything related to this office building.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| > They pay no taxes on anything related to this office
| building.
|
| Was a Deacon at a church that bought a strip mall (fire
| sale price). They had to pay regular taxes on income from
| the other businesses. Even the church's own thrift and book
| sales had to collect and pay sales tax.
|
| Perhaps that church is committing tax fraud?
| mikestew wrote:
| _Perhaps that church is committing tax fraud?_
|
| Perhaps it's the third-or-fourth-hand story telling.
| Loughla wrote:
| That church is 100% committing tax fraud. One of the non-
| profit colleges I worked at owned farm ground and
| buildings they rented out. They had to pay taxes on the
| rental income.
| UncleMeat wrote:
| The point is that churches are exempt from some of the
| oversight requirements that other tax-exempt charitable
| organizations have to comply with. This makes it much
| easier for them to commit fraud.
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| Churches don't even have to maintain any financial
| records for the IRS. They're impossible to audit.
| mooreds wrote:
| > They pay no taxes on anything related to this office
| building.
|
| That seems fraudulent.
|
| I was a member of a non-profit org that owned a building
| and rented out some of it. We paid no taxes on the parts
| that were used for the non-profit, but owed property taxes
| on the rental.
| sneak wrote:
| We spend Elon Musk's entire net worth accumulated over a
| lifetime on the US military every 75 days or so.
|
| We're literally torching two billion dollars a day on the
| military when we're not at war and not under threat.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| Executive orders were meant for national emergencies.
| Apparently we're under threat from everyone from whom we
| have a trade imbalance, even islands with no humans on
| them!
|
| (And it's not like partisans are locking up Congress to
| spite him.)
| exe34 wrote:
| and an even greater threat was from whatever's in
| people's underwear - that was covered early on [0].
|
| [0] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-
| actions/2025/01/defe...
| _DeadFred_ wrote:
| We are literally two days away from Trumpers hating
| penguins because Trumps people are such amateurs they put
| tariffs on these islands and now the cult has to defend
| it.
| chris_wot wrote:
| You guys are under threat - from your President.
| rgbrenner wrote:
| that puts musks net worth at 150b. you might want to update
| your numbers.
| smt88 wrote:
| > _We're literally torching two billion dollars a day on
| the military when we're not at war and not under threat._
|
| We were in a (physical) proxy war with Russia via Ukraine
| until very recently, and we are currently in a digital war
| against Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and probably
| other nation-states.
|
| Should this be under the purview of the actual military? I
| don't know, although that arrangement is effective for
| Israel's cybersecurity command.
|
| Regardless, there is an active need for defense spending
| now, just not the way we've been spending it.
| timewizard wrote:
| The largest fraction, totaling about $300b itself, is
| military retirement programs and funding. The other largest
| fraction is internal spending on healthcare for active duty
| members and their families.
|
| The individual agencies collectively spend only around $100b.
|
| Likewise the other large fraction of the total budget outside
| the DoD is healthcare spending. We spend a huge amount of
| money and we don't seem to have healthcare outcomes which
| justify these costs.
|
| Right now 1 out of every 5 dollars of spent GDP comes from
| the government. 85% of that money comes from individual tax
| payers and only 7% from businesses. The system is flailing
| from top to bottom.
| rgbrenner wrote:
| _Right now 1 out of every 5 dollars of spent GDP comes from
| the government._
|
| Why prefix with "Right now"? It's been roughly 20% since
| 1975, and only marginally lower for the 25 years before
| that.
|
| https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S
|
| The other side of that (taxes) has changed much more
| substantially during that time (lower).
| timewizard wrote:
| > Why prefix with "Right now"?
|
| I'm probably just a bit older than you might assume.
|
| > and only marginally lower for the 25 years before that.
|
| Really I was doing a bad job of highlighting this
| problem:
|
| https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSGDA188S
|
| > has changed much more substantially during that time
| (lower).
|
| The burden has shifted /more/ onto individual tax payers
| and less from business and excise taxes was the
| particular point I was driving at. It suggests more
| clearly who actually got those "lower" taxes and why our
| linked graphs paint a bad future.
| labster wrote:
| It would be foolish to cut the military now, since the US
| will soon need it to pacify its 51st state, Canada.
| rangerelf wrote:
| I don't know if you're being sarcastic or obtuse.
| linotype wrote:
| Why not both?
| labster wrote:
| From Prof. Tim Snyder, https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-
| absurdity-is-the-point
|
| > War with Canada is what Trump seems to have in mind.
| Fentanyl is not the only the big lie. That Canada does
| not really exist is the other. The way that this fiction
| is formulated is strangely Putinist. Trump's rhetoric
| about Canada uncannily echoes that of Russian
| propagandists towards Ukraine. The claim that the country
| is not real; that its people really want to join us; that
| the border is an artificial line; that history must lead
| to annexation... This is all familiar from Putin, as is
| Trump's curious ambiguity about a neighbor: they are our
| brothers, they are also our enemies; they are doing
| terrible things to us, they also don't really exist.
|
| > The imperialist rhetoric has to be seen for what it is,
| which is preparation not just for trade war but for war
| itself.
|
| The US is preparing for war. It's not a joke.
| mulmen wrote:
| 22.4% of the US Military budget goes to salaries of military
| personnel. Civilian contractors are part of the separate
| operations budget but I can't find the breakout of their
| salaries. So there's a lot of consumer spending and economic
| activity supported by military spending.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| To be fair- Hegseth has said he wants to cut 8% a year for
| five years from the pentagon. I strongly disagree, the
| military should be getting more money. Now is not the time
| for cuts.
|
| I'm not sure they have the authority to do this anyway they
| lack power of the purse and all that.
| jmye wrote:
| > Now is not the time for cuts.
|
| Why do you think that? I would think the technological
| advantage the US military currently has doesn't need _more_
| money to maintain, but maybe I'm missing something.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| 25 years of warfare have taken their toll.
|
| Most of the airframes are in their twilight years. The
| Navy is in a conundrum... the surface fleet strategy is
| probably not strategically sound, and we slowed down
| submarine production at one point so many of those assets
| are also aging and in need of maintenance.
|
| The Ukraine war is full of learnings that should be
| driving transformation and investment. Reality is that a
| rogue billionaire could probably build drones that could
| threaten strategic military assets in the field. As time
| goes on, that capability will likely get cheaper and
| better.
| mulmen wrote:
| You are missing:
|
| The technological edge is unknown against a near peer.
|
| Any edge has a non-zero maintenance cost.
|
| Adversaries are not going to stop improving their
| capabilities so any advantage naturally decays.
|
| The US Military directly employs a couple million people.
|
| Our current military industrial complex is highly reliant
| on free trade agreements with allies.
| 9283409232 wrote:
| The US does not have a technological advantage. This is
| the type of American Exceptionalism that needs to die. If
| we got into a full-scale war with China, we would lose. A
| big part of the US military strength is the logistical
| network with allies that Trump is systematically
| destroying.
| cma wrote:
| Look at what passed the house, Medicaid cuts and major
| military increase
| UncleMeat wrote:
| Ah don't worry they'll just cut the history professors at the
| military academies. That's what we want, an officer class
| with no media literacy skills or an understanding of the
| context that they live in.
|
| /s, of course.
| mhb wrote:
| What do you reckon is the right amount to spend on defense?
| 8note wrote:
| military bases are also a carrot.
|
| theyre stocks to the neighbors but not the host
| Jtsummers wrote:
| The military is not a third of the budget, it's about 13% of
| spending this FY so far which is a lot, but almost 3x lower
| than you suggest (closer to 1/8th than 1/3rd).
| xnx wrote:
| You didn't even mention the immense new tax giveaways to the
| rich.
| marcusverus wrote:
| We are living in a post-argument rhetorical landscape.
| Untruths aren't stated openly, they're baked into words via
| the constant abuse of of the english language.
|
| It's sad to see how many are utterly defenseless.
| chgs wrote:
| Was always going to be when you looked at the areas he promised
| not to cut.
|
| But 70 million Americans don't think that way.
| nine_zeros wrote:
| > Turns out all the cuts are only a fraction of a percent of
| the federal budget. It's an ideological purge, nothing to do
| with efficiency at all.
|
| It always ways. It is a media campaign where significant damage
| is caused to a large number of programs - with the claim that
| they are cutting expense. But actually none of these cuts will
| cause any meaningful reduction in government or deficit because
| these programs never were the big ticket items. The biggest
| ticket item is tax handouts to the rich. They are not touching
| that.
|
| Many people can see through this presidential scam. But the
| MAGA cult is so full of vitriol and hatred for others that they
| don't see the scam. They don't realize that MAGA voters are
| themselves being scammed by their beloved Trump.
|
| And thus, we still have always Trumpers. America is just a sad
| country right now.
| Covzire wrote:
| The USA is rocketing towards bankruptcy, it's just not
| sustainable.
| criddell wrote:
| It's my understanding that debt is mostly held in the US by
| Americans and that a country that runs a debt in a currency
| it controls isn't anything like household debt.
|
| That said, what would it mean for the US to go bankrupt?
| Spooky23 wrote:
| No, it's not. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of many
| people who get ginned up about this. Debt is the most
| powerful tool of a nation.
|
| The US is a sovereign, _the sovereign_. The country can
| borrow until the faith and credit in our ability to pay is
| lost. There 's no such thing as bankruptcy, you can default
| or print money.
|
| The US is rocketing towards depression. Slowing down the
| velocity of money is the single worst thing you can do for an
| economy. We're implementing the largest tax increase in
| history, taking away pensioner benefits, and pushing the cost
| of healthcare up, nuking consumer demand. There's no adults
| keeping Trump away from doing stupid shit -- he'll set off an
| economic death spiral.
| marcusverus wrote:
| We're spending a trillion a year to service debt. The
| equivalent of ~45% of all income tax revenues.
|
| Utter insanity.
| ttyprintk wrote:
| A lot of Trump supporters would identify the super-rich
| as the right demographic to pay that.
| rainsford wrote:
| > Turns out all the cuts are only a fraction of a percent of
| the federal budget.
|
| Looking at it another way, the cuts are actually decreasing
| overall efficiency since they're cutting things that deliver
| decent benefits given that they only cost a small fraction of
| federal spending. Maintaining things like hiking trails and
| parks is incredibly cheap compared to the benefits they produce
| in terms of intangibles like well being and related economic
| activity. The National Parks Service for example helps generate
| a huge amount of tourism dollars that exceeds their budget
| several times over.
|
| > It's an ideological purge...
|
| See that's the part I really struggle with. Cratering foreign
| aid has an obvious ideological component, but who hates hiking
| trails? Like I'm sure there are a few people who hate the
| outdoors and a handful of oligarchs who want to privatize
| everything, but where's the constituency for it?
| davidw wrote:
| > Looking at it another way, the cuts are actually decreasing
| overall efficiency since they're cutting things that deliver
| decent benefits given that they only cost a small fraction of
| federal spending.
|
| And especially when they're targeting the IRS. What use is it
| cutting 1% if you lose 10% of your revenue because you don't
| have the resources to pursue outright cheats or lawyered-up
| people.
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| The IRS makes a _huge_ profit margin on average from audits
| on the 1%-and-up folks because so many of them are cheating
| on their taxes.
|
| Even before all this, the IRS was spending most of its
| auditing resources on auditing the poor - especially people
| using the earned income credit - and losing thousands of
| dollars or more on each audit because they either didn't
| find anything, or it was an inconsequential amount of
| money.
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| Other countries are issuing travel advisories for the US and
| I know at least two Canadians who have said that not only are
| they not buying anything made in the US, but everyone they
| know has declared they will be crossing the border - both
| because of the danger but also as part of their boycotting
| the states. Lawful border crossings between the US and Canada
| have plunged. Canadian tourism is a significant part of the
| economy, though the effect won't really be felt until
| summertime.
|
| I don't blame them in the slightest for either.
|
| The tariff situation is a disaster that will only further
| increase the tax burden and cost of living on the poor and
| middle class. For rich people, a 30-50% increase in their
| grocery costs is barely a drop in the bucket of their budget
| they won't feel beyond getting annoyed.
|
| The low income energy assistance program LIHEAP just got shut
| down, not even with any notice so states can try to spool up
| something. If this had happened a month or two ago we'd be
| seeing news stories about seniors freezing to death in the
| midwest and northeast. Soon we're going to see hyperthemia
| stories. In some areas AC isn't a luxury, it's a necessity as
| much as heating is in the cold winter states, if not more so.
| You can't "bundle up" from the heat.
|
| For a large swath of America, this will mean people going
| hungry. And turning to property crime to try to make ends
| meet....or to get into jail where conditions might really
| suck, but at least their most basic needs are (kind of) being
| met.
| Rodeoclash wrote:
| As an Australian I would avoid any travel to the US at the
| moment. Especially after reading about the MMA coach who
| got detained and jailed on entry to the country.
|
| It's one thing to be denied entry and put on a plane back
| to your original country, entirely another to be put into
| federal prison for an indefinite amount of time before
| being sent back.
|
| America clearly doesn't want visitors at the moment.
| comte7092 wrote:
| Sub out "who hates hiking trails?" and sub in "who hates
| having popular government programs?"
|
| Answer: people who don't want constituents to believe that
| the government can be effective and deliver good services.
| That's the ideological component.
|
| "Government bad" is amazing platform to run on because it's
| pretty easy to deliver.
| 9283409232 wrote:
| It's sabotage under the cover of efficiency.
| rco8786 wrote:
| Find the government doing something you disagree with. Call it
| "fraud" and axe it. Announce to the world how much "fraud" you
| found. Rinse. Repeat.
| hypeatei wrote:
| All the while not prosecuting anyone for all the "fraud"
| you're finding.
| paganel wrote:
| They need to win any ideological battle that they can get in
| order to start the "assault" against Medicaid and Medicare,
| which I guess it's where most of the money goes to (that and
| the Military, but I don't think they'll drastically touch that,
| no matter the current discourse).
|
| In other words, if you show people that the Government can be
| dismantled little by little without any big revolution coming
| their way, then they'll next have the impetus to go for the
| jugular, i.e. Medicaid and Medicare.
| swalling wrote:
| These cuts are particularly nasty because federal spending on
| public trail maintenance is already razor thin. A _ton_ of the
| Pacific Crest Trail and other scenic trails are already primarily
| maintained by volunteer groups doing work like log clearing,
| brush removal, and tread work. Trail users ourselves--hikers,
| mountain bikers, or trail runners--already put in hundreds of
| volunteer hours every season doing the basic trail work, and that
| 's just regular seasonal maintenance. Significant work rebuilding
| parts of the Appalachian Trail and PCT after wildfires or
| hurricanes will likely not happen this year, or for years to
| come, unless volunteers fill in more gaps.
| phyzix5761 wrote:
| Can we start a non profit where people can donate for things
| like this so we can actually get funding without relying on
| government?
| grg0 wrote:
| Let's also pool some money to help the sick pay for health
| care, the young pay for education and those affected by
| layoffs tackle the transition. Heck, we could even start our
| own government.
| sneak wrote:
| You know what makes the government the government, right?
|
| You're missing the key piece.
| grg0 wrote:
| It'll be a government for the people, by the people.
| sneak wrote:
| Those people will have to be well-armed.
| grg0 wrote:
| Don't worry, we'll get help from the French and the
| Spanish.
| mikevm wrote:
| why not? all the socialists can start "the big socialist
| fund" and contribute part of their paychecks to this fund
| while the rest of us libertarians/right-wingers will
| contribute nothing. win/win right?
| grg0 wrote:
| Sure. We don't pay tax to you, though. We can be trade
| buddies.
| card_zero wrote:
| Hey, I don't see why libertarians shouldn't join in. This
| is essentially a guild.
|
| For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Com
| pany_of_Security...
| embedded_hiker wrote:
| There are many local, and not-so-local, groups that do this
| volunteer trail maintenance, and they could definitely use
| some monetary donations. There is the PCTA, mentioned up-
| thread ( pcta.org ). I volunteer for Trailkeepers of Oregon,
| based in Portland, and is active in many parts of the state.
| trailkeepersoforegon.org . There is also the Washington
| trails Association, and many more.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| At this point why don't we just go back to the Articles of
| Confederation.
|
| If we accept the federal government can't do anything what
| are we paying taxes for? Get rid of social security too, I'm
| not going to make it to whatever stupidly high age they raise
| retirement to.
|
| I used to be a big government liberal, but the problem is
| eventually people you disagree with start running super
| government.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| The federal government does an amazing number of things
| despite some inefficiencies. FEMA, FDA, EPA, SEC, FTC, FCC,
| national defense, interstate highways, border security (for
| better and worse), social security, Medicaid, Medicare,
| maintain embassies, foreign diplomacy, etc. As these things
| are gutted their absence or lack of capacity will be felt
| for decades.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| I'm thinking these responsibilities can be shifted to the
| states. That's defacto what's going to happen as the
| federal government keeps cutting services.
|
| If I want to live in a high tax state with a social
| safety net, cool. Others can move to Mississippi pay no
| taxes and brag about how they have a higher GPD than
| Spain ignoring the actual quality of life is much worse
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| Good for them I guess. I prefer a country where I don't
| have to move as the political winds change, just to
| maintain rights and benefits my ancestors fought for.
| emptybits wrote:
| This feels like the trend of Americans having to start
| GoFundMe campaigns for surgeries and health care. (!) I mean,
| do what you feel you have to do in the urgent moment. But
| come on. What's the plan? This is not civilized.
| chgs wrote:
| You work towards reality tv where you vote on who lives and
| who dies. Used to be the domain of things like black mirror
| but the reality is coming far sooner than you think.
| rchaud wrote:
| Such a nonprofit exists, it's called the federal government.
|
| Maybe the super-rich can create their own nonprofit to fund
| commercial space tourism or whatever absurdity they've deemed
| so important that it needs spending _elsewhere_ to be cut and
| diverted to them.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I kind of like the idea of the people using the trails paying
| for them in kind.
| Matheus28 wrote:
| Yeah, let's make road users spend a couple days a year
| pouring asphalt as well. It's only fair
| Freedom2 wrote:
| We should also make sure that anyone who hasn't paid the
| trail toll or contributed physically are not allowed to use
| it, it's also only fair.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| The difference of course is that almost everyone uses or
| benefits from the economy of roads. Relatively very few
| people use trails and they use them for personal enjoyment.
| throwaway173738 wrote:
| The real difference is that people in cities pay huge
| amounts of tax to support the roads out to a relatively
| few houses in the country. Roads are the biggest outlay
| in every county I've lived in.
| peter422 wrote:
| The number of people who use state and federal parks in a
| given year is roughly equal to the number of people who
| fly.
|
| It's definitely a few notches above "very few".
| Freedom2 wrote:
| I wonder if the parent to this comment is another "I
| don't use trails, so no one does!".
|
| If you actually walk along a few trails on a regular
| cadence, it's clear that there are many different people
| - it's not just the same people every weekend.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Relatively people use your residential street. Why not
| let it turn to mud then? Wider economy won't miss it.
| chimpanzee wrote:
| You really can't think of any ancillary benefits to the
| presence of accessible nature?
|
| I feel like this sort of comment (from someone with 14k+
| "karma" points) is a kind of DoS attack on their self-
| perceived opponents.
|
| But nonetheless, here's three benefits for all,
| regardless of usage:
|
| - reduction in healthcare costs, both physical and mental
|
| - increased tourism
|
| - increased appreciation for environment which in turn
| loops back into this list from the top
|
| Just focusing on health alone has wide ranging benefits.
| And if all you care about are tax revenues and GDP, a
| healthy, happy workforce goes quite a way to improving
| both.
|
| I'm not going to list anymore because I got other things
| to do and think about. And this isn't going to change
| your mind anyways.
| ok_dad wrote:
| I kinda like the idea that people don't have to pay for
| public land access.
| chgs wrote:
| The idea is there's no public land. The ultra wealthy will
| own it all and you'll be confined to your Manna-style death
| camps.
| amarcheschi wrote:
| You will not be confined, you will have the freedom of
| choice whether to do that or be coerced into doing that
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| I've read some exchanges from an American friend with their
| other American friends on social media years ago. I noticed
| that many of the people were very against the idea of people
| they don't think are deserving from benefiting from them.
| Even in abstract ways. For example people getting welfare who
| are actually scamming the system. Or having an outside
| benefit, like poor people getting free healthcare even if
| they can't pay taxes. Trails would have been a good example
| for this group, "why am I paying for trails I don't use?".
|
| I have a hypothesis that Americans are so scared of others
| benefitting from themselves that they miss that many, many
| more people are deserving and it makes for a better society.
| But they don't see that and would rather punish the deserving
| and themselves, if it means the undeserving will _hurt more_.
| I think this thinking also bleeds into your social justice
| movements.
| 9dev wrote:
| It's really a weird effect. Like, how enjoyable even is a
| world where you're rich, but surrounded by poor,
| uneducated, sick people, and all you can do is stay inside
| because the outside is caustic and ravaged?
|
| Is it too much mental gymnastics that it's a lot more
| interesting to talk to happy, sophisticated, educated
| people? To enjoy maintained public parks? To learn from the
| past in museums that present all kinds of viewpoints? To
| have a strong workforce that is confidently going to the
| doctor?
|
| I'll never get what's so hard about things affecting other
| things, even if it doesn't immediately yield a profit.
| d0gsg0w00f wrote:
| The problem is that the people who aren't contributing
| forget who is actually contributing and start tearing
| down the system because they have no clue how the world
| works anymore.
| thechao wrote:
| There's a very vocal segment of Americans -- I live among
| many of them -- who very much believe this. It's not _all_
| Americans.
| TimorousBestie wrote:
| It's enough of us. A couple pockets of pro-community
| mutualists here and there don't make enough of a
| difference to influence domestic policy.
| swalling wrote:
| You don't have to be communist to believe in maintaining
| public access to publicly-owned lands. Turns out National
| Parks, national forests, state parks, campgrounds, etc
| attract millions of people annually, and most of us are
| very glad that access is for everyone. As taxpayers we in
| fact pay for that public infrastructure, just like we pay
| for roads.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| We do.
|
| - Moped
|
| GA-ME 2010
|
| Volunteer maintainer Smarts Mountain Ranger Trail (AT side
| trail) 2021-present.
|
| Landowner and volunteer maintainer on the Cross Rivendell
| Trail (CRT) 2023-present
|
| My wife, who also thru-hiked the AT, before we met is on the
| CRT board.
|
| We spent three days of our vacation in 2023 helping to re-
| roof Jeffers Brook Shelter on the AT.
|
| We are also members of the ATC, GMC, MATC, and PCTA and have
| been for some combination of those between us since before we
| met.
|
| ETA:
|
| Oh yeah, also two weeks ago we helped hump a 200 pound bear
| box in to Velvet Rocks Shelter on the AT.
| IronCoder1 wrote:
| Automation is inevitable, but we must ensure displaced workers
| are retrained and supported in the transition. The government
| should incentivize companies to invest in upskilling employees.
| Short-term layoffs may be necessary, but the focus should be on
| adapting the workforce to new economic realities.
| SequoiaHope wrote:
| Yeah but why do all that when those at the top could just fight
| over our dwindling resources.
| ck2 wrote:
| lol "new economic realities" "short-term layoffs"
|
| by 2028 there will be millions (more) people living out of
| their cars and doing Amazon/Walmart deliveries during the day
|
| the new difference is they will have 4-year college degrees
| while homeless
| almog wrote:
| If you searched for "Arizona Trail southern terminus" you'll see
| what the terminus looks like today: a beautiful* monument
| shadowed by a half built useless wall that cost way more than the
| government spending to maintain some of the most beautiful trails
| in the world.
|
| These cuts would not just put trail users (which aren't just
| hikers but also firefighters, hunters) in danger but also cause
| damage to national parks and national forests as trail users
| would have to find alternate routes that go off trail.
|
| * It is, in my opinion, the most scenic terminus of all national
| scenic trails. The (half built) ugliness of the looming wall is
| an insult to the beauty of the American West.
| johnnyanmac wrote:
| The government has unions right? I'm surprised by now that no one
| called for a strike. Sure, it'd be rendered illegal, but if your
| job is being cut haphazardly, what have you got to lose?
| hotep99 wrote:
| The whole point is to get rid of government employees. Going on
| strike is just volunteering your members for the chopping
| block.
| johnnyanmac wrote:
| Yes, it's a prisoners dilemma. But solidarity is pretty
| important here no matter what. We forget that the best case
| scenario in such a dilemma is to all work together. They know
| already that they cannot literally fire every employee in
| order to keep operating.
| pmags wrote:
| NPR: "Trump signs order ending union bargaining rights for wide
| swaths of federal employees"
|
| -- https://www.npr.org/2025/03/28/nx-s1-5343474/trump-
| collectiv...
| outside1234 wrote:
| Going to be four years of "finding out" what Federal Employees
| that were cut actually did
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