I am in complete support of Trump and Doge’s actions and also the tariff plan. This is what we voted for and it had to be done. We knew it would be painful. But even I am surprised at how many people in my small extended circle of acquaintances have lost their jobs. Turned out a few people I know had jobs funded by USAID grants. I had no idea. A woman who worked for HHS went to work one day and her badge didn’t work. She was fired through her work email which she could no longer access. A few people are newer hires and expect to be let go. Seems I hear of more of them each day. I just say “Who knew how much of our economy was funded by taxpayers?” Not sure what more I can say except to express hope they find a new job soon. These people are stunned and don’t know what hit them. Most had salaries not easily replaced. They never had a thought in their lives that they were part of any problem, even those living in towns with gutted-out factories and boarded up Main streets. It doesn’t seem the best time to lecture about how millions lost their jobs to globalization and have been through similar experiences except that their jobs were actually producing things and not parasitic on productive taxpaying middle class workers. Any thoughts on what to say to shocked angry confused normies?
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Most every other industry has been hit hard over the last 30 years. Steel workers,coal mining, farming, manufacturing... .. now it's their turn,they can work for American companies when we make America great again.
Exactly. It’s tough on them but it’s not as if most of them ever expressed compassion for lost livelihoods through globalization, Covid lockdowns, or death by regulation.
I used to work construction. We got hammered by all the illegals,so I switched to a FAA licensed aircraft mechanic.....
Smart move!
Shoot, I worked in construction too, and switched to software engineering because of illegals lol
Same. Switched over to tech from construction during Obama administration.
The construction jobs might be coming back when the illegals get deported.
AI is coming for white collar jobs.
And blue collar probably as well.
Ran into a random investment guy some years back who seemed very genuinely concerned about how to keep people engaged in being able to work when this new technology was all rolled out.
I don’t have any idea how things are going to end up looking.
I will say the new Tesla Bots and all the self-driving cars make me think the service industry and shipping are going to be on the chopping block before too long. The amount of automation in factories these days is also already impressive.
Beautiful. Thats how.
Yep. Especially low code/ no code jobs.
No it's not
👆🏻That’s right!!!
Most of these bureaucrats look down on manual labour jobs. Most of them do have the drive to start a business. Most of them want a 9-5 and a pension with as little effort as possible.
Obviously their “work” was utter BS and contributed NOTHING to society, hence “you’re fired”.
No sympathy here.
User name checks out.
Why yes. I guess it does!
how about mine. does it check out lol
yes indeed
Not sure... do you stir-fry a lot?
Kek i see you noticed my typo, I just had to go with it. Never figured out how to change the name
;~)
😆
Yes. Yours checks out too. 😂😂
Ran into one last week that has taken a DOGE buyout and was renovating run down homes. They seemed energized and I was thrilled at how rapidly they had pivoted to real work.
Great story! I would think it could be freeing to get out from under the thumb of a govt job. The BS training, the rules, the badges, the boring meetings… glad some people are feeling it.
My normie buddy retired from 30 years in the Air Force. He flew LC-130's (ski planes) for regular trips to both the north and south poles. As he got promoted up the ranks he ended up working cooperatively in the National Science Foundation (NSF) offices as their military liaison.
He'd always complain how painfully bureaucratic the NSF was how they were freeloading off the military to conduct their "climate" research.
He keeps in touch with a lot of his past coworkers, so I'm wondering when the NSF is going to be exposed for a massive money-suck they have been gobbling up.
Wouldn't surprise me if they are involved in some nefarious activities in Antarctica also.
Keep us posted! The military and related organizations and contractors are not exactly squeaky clean. We hope the current administration can separate the wheat from the chaff.
I was intimately familiar with this agency from an HQ standpoint. The current director was appointed by 45. The department heads are all liberal to a fault. The support staff are all sassy Shaniquas. NSF is the new DARPA, at least in the AI and quantum areas. I'm very curious if the lid will be lifted on Antarctica. FWIW, I didn't find NSF to be any more bureaucratic than other agencies I've worked for.
Why does that description fit everyone in every government agency?
It has to be intentional, but why? It’s so weird.
DEI. It's been going on since the 80's in some form or fashion, it just hadn't been as overt as during the last 10 years.
Some are worse than others. DoED, HHS, and a few more are 90% Shaniqua and D'Arnells.
Because of the NSF or ???
I'm always interested and intrigued by anything related to Antarctica...
Got anything juicy regarding Antarctica recently for me? 🍿🍿🍿
My pilot buddy wants to meet up at a Cigar Bar next week. I'll see how sauced he gets and maybe hit him with some prying questions.
Combining his visits, he's probably spent several months at both poles. He's only shared aerial videos with me showing the south pole's a vast icy wasteland with impressively deadly mountain ranges, stills of underground ice core sample analysis labs and riding around in those giant wheeled buggies.
I'd love to hear anything you discover...
I often feel we're racing against time & technology in terms of legitimate footage captured of "secret places" vs some dbag's idea of a good time by poisoning the well with some AI contrived horseshit...You know what I mean with the recent "artifacts", pyramids and stormtrooper footage that have appeared in recent days...
Yes, I know EXACTLY what you mean.
He doesn't have any patience when I delve in to the conspiracy "stuff", but he likes sharing his military travel experiences. I'll be careful what I say so I don't alarm him.
That's a tough question. Try this: Government has grown far larger than is needed. Because the tax payers are the salary payers there is an effort to pare government's workforce down. I'm really sorry you lost your job. I wish they had given you more notice. I hope and pray you find a new job you like.
I like it.
The job market is a joke anyways.
One of my wife's friend's has been looking for a job for 8 months now. She has some health issues, but is a very bright lady.
She went to countless interviews, with no results. It got so bad that she even filled out an application at the Dollar Store, and they still didn't call her.
Finally after a long search she got a job last week. She treats it like she won the lotery.
So it's not just your friends, the post Covid Biden economy has hit everyone outside the trades pretty hard.
I'm fortunate to have a job (IT) but it started sucking about a year ago and I'm not sure how long the job will be there (I have at least another year, maybe two before I start to worry).
I've been applying for 12 months. Granted, I'm in a position where I don't have to apply for anything unless it looks interesting/better than what I have now. A whole lot of people are out there applying to multiple jobs daily just hoping for a bite.
I haven't had a single response and judging by the comments on job boards, I'm not alone. I'm late in my career and I've tweaked the resume to conceal my age, but I've never found it this difficult to even get an interview. Thank God I'm not in a desperate situation or it would be enormously frustrating and stressful.
When I started looking, I was worried about using up my personal time for interviews. That turns out not to be a concern.
Same thing here in IT. Trying to move up but the market is trash
I try not to think about the massive human cost of all these shenanigans. Fake jobs, fake responses, millions of people filling out overly complex applications only to have them rejected due to AI or because the job doesn't exist. There's likely enormous amounts of data harvesting and identity theft happening. And just generally wasting everyone's time.
It needs to change, but all the costs are borne by individual job seekers who essentially have no power. in this situation.
I'm not a fan of government regulation, but this is the sort of situation that the employers better fix or they will get legislated against eventually.
Depends. Did they ever use the Boomer “Pick yourself up by your bootstraps” line to anyone younger than them complaining about the Job Market or their housing/family prospects? Then I’d tell them Panda Express is hiring. With enough hard work they could make manager in a few years.
Otherwise I’d suggest getting Licensing or something similar. Heavy Equipment operator. Drone pilot etc. comparatively quick turnaround time when compared to time investment. Depending on the license in question it’s not necessarily a particularly expensive investment. And you generally always have some form of work available. Even if you’re doing it as a side gig while trying to find a new main gig.
You also aren’t busting your ass and destroying your body by 35 unlike some of the trade jobs that are available.
Great ideas. Most are women over 50 like me. I have always had a Plan B and Plan C in the works and would not mind losing my job to pursue my backup plans, but apparently a lot of people, especially govt workers, don’t think this way. Funny you should mention these ideas. My welder son also does drone photography as a side gig and has heavy equipment licenses.
Been laid off three times in private sector. Three little kids during two of them and serious illness in the family on the third. The government and its employees didnt give a shite. Last job for private company dealt with government contracts during covid sham. so we were considered a government contractor so no jab no job. Did your circle of buddies cry over my job loss. Give me a break
There has long been a mindset that government job = job for life. This philosophy, alone, has created a culture of complacency. Why work hard when your job is guaranteed?
Just wait until the health insurance scam is discovered. Ya wanna talk about a bloated payroll to provide jobs for the economy
So true. Also state and local governments. And bullshit "IT" companies.
Learn to code.
Seriously though, at least 2 older gentlemen in my men's Bible study group are similarly impacted.
I’d say, depending on their skill sets, older gentlemen could offer products or services to fill needs - fixing things like appliances, setting up Wi-Fi, woodworking, training in what you know — whether it be growing vegetables or electrical wiring, writing, walking dogs or pet sitting…. I live in an area that is really hurting for real honest non-digital services. One guy near us is doing well building and selling simple wooden raised garden containers.
I'm in canada, and the reaction to this could not be more polarized. People on welfare/doing low-income jobs are shitting their pants right now, as even with tons of government subsidies they're struggling to pay for their vinyl figurines and onlyfans subscriptions. If you're middle class though this "trade war" is the best thing ever. Healthy groceries like broccoli and cauliflower are ridiculously cheap right now, and gas is at its lowest in 30 years with most places in my area being under $1/L (or for you americans, a full tank on the average car is about $40-50).
Thanks fren for the on-the-ground insight from Canada! A branch of the company my husband works for is in Canada and from phone meetings I hear, they sound quite lighthearted about how things are going right now. They would be middle classers.
I'm retired. But this reality demands we crop the government down to a manageable size. sorry for those who have to adjust, but in 5 years you will be miles ahead of where you would have been working for the govt.
It's not just govt jobs. I have had quite a few interviews (with multiple rounds) and the jobs or last round of interviews were put on hold because companies are trying to figure out what their budgets will be now that they don't know how much some of their parts or equipment they need will be. Just happened to me again yesterday. Some of these companies get most of their parts from here in the US, or using the USMCA, and even they aren't sure what will ultimately happen.
I actually like the tariffs, but I don't like the uncertainty from POTUS changing things seemingly out of the blue. We know he has a plan but Boards of Directors look at what they can see now.
I do OT Security (like manufacturing/refining/nuclear). A big part of what I do is secure those OT networks and add in monitoring. Almost all of those devices come from overseas. Companies are postponing those purchases. That, and their IT counterparts will slow hiring for certain people like me.
Good point. I support POTUS 100% and I trust he has a plan, but as a businessman, he should know that the worst thing for business is uncertainty. It's hard enough to plan for the future when you have a reasonable idea of what to expect, and planning for the future is what drives hiring.
Yeah, the macro picture is not pertinent to their immediate pain. Sympathy is what they need, but it behooves them to consider changing their line of work to one that is supported by capitalism and their ability to add something to the economy themselves.
Here in California I've seem estimates that the government is nearly 50% of the economy and employment. I think we'll have a lot more of that pain coming. On the other hand, the huge effect of the illegal population leaving will open up a lot of jobs.
Looks like CA economy is being intentionally imploded in order to force Federal bailout (ala NYC in 1970s) or a debt default to allow China to take control of the land backing all the CA state bonds.
Note that CA has been largely excluded from most foreign direct investment while Big Corps shift to other states and CA regulations strangle small business. Once criminals, migrants, and foreign agents are deported, CA could have a major labor shortage and have to compete with NV, ID, and AZ which are growing decently with massive FDI (small biz, et al.) and about to rocket to growth rates not seen in 135 years.
Well, if they are truly that unthinking, it probably took them losing their jobs to give it some thought. My gosh, seriously, if that are that unthinking and self absorbed losing their job might be the only thing that could possibly wake them up.
It doesn’t seem the best time to lecture about how millions lost their jobs to globalization and have been through similar experiences except that their jobs were actually producing things and not parasitic on productive taxpaying middle class workers.
Actually, it seems exactly the right time, but not in those words. You are an articulate, thinking person. I trust you can say this with a bit more empathy for their current predicament, all the time reminding them that millions upon millions have been dealing with a similar situation while they were happily and well employed themselves.
Thanks for the insights. This forum is where I can be more frank than in day-to-day interactions. I am always happy to talk about these things with willing participants. There will be times that are better for such conversations than others. Talking about reasons, history, morality, and philosophy probably won’t be effective when the person is feeling traumatized, victimized, and frankly, just plain scared.
Learn to mine coal, it's coming back big league.
In my area I'm surprised how many people are outright compromised and working for the cabal, with their "private sector" jobs. Dude near me had a "birds aren't real" panel truck during covid, and the town politicos are obviously sellouts. I used to think they were just idiots, but their behavior makes it clear they switched over to the dark side years ago and I'm only realizing it now.
Yeah I’m in a rural area and am surprised to see how deep and wide the tentacles extend. The good thing is the underlying corrupt structure is becoming visible. We still have a ways to go.
The only way democrats know to create jobs is through taxpayer monies. Government jobs or government funded jobs. When Biden said he created 800,000 new jobs he meant it. He just didn;t tell you how he did it!
I saw a statistic a while back that something like 41 % of the us works for the "government" in some form or another.
Sounds about right. Apparently a lot of people who don’t work directly for the govt are government contractors or funded by grants from secret govt agencies. One of the left’s favorite words is “sustainable.” Govt sucking half the money from a shrinking base of producers and truly private business ain’t sustainable.
Romney said 47% received a government paycheck and I think his number is low.
What to say?
WAKE UP!
We're now finding out just how artificial economics is, across the world. The theft of citizens' money via outrageous taxation, enforced at gunpoint by corrupt institutions, propped up by waste fraud and abuse, used to propagate illegal migration into western societies, thereby destroying these environments from the inside.
That embilical cord is being cut, and the whole process is being shredded. Did anyone really expect this to be pretty?? Personally, I think it's going pretty well, considering how deeply embedded the tentacles are.
We just need to hold the line.
The only people surprised are those who haven't been paying attention.
Leave it be. I can empathize with the shake up to their existence. Anything you say now will not be well received. We are not here to pour salt on wounds. I would just pray silently for God to get them back on their feet as quickly as possible.
Say this , imagine you are a ford/chevy/dodge employee in the 70s and 80s . This has to happen so your kids and grandchildren can have the American dream
meaning: they were over paid.
if they collected a pay check from the FedGov, they were in fact, part of the problem.
"Welcome to the real world" is what I would say.
We need more plumbers !
That’s for sure!
Don't feel like the Lone Ranger?
People who had real jobs lost them to facilitate the bureaucracy that was poised to dismantle America! I am not American but I can clearly see the evil agenda that was at work in that Great Republic. Obama buying inferior steel from China to make warships. Are people this stupid? Microchips made in China proves that these politicians were treasonous! America needed to be destroyed from within for globalists to achieve their agenda! Many sold out!
Are you in DC?
Virginia but not NOVA.
I'm similarly situated and I'm seeing a lot of this too. The human scale is painful. I didn't expect this much fallout and I do worry about the economy.
If all your friends are libtards being bribed with fake jobs in the shadow government, what does that say about you? Concern troll.
These are mainly acquaintances not necessarily friends. But I don’t hate normies. People are born with levels of mental capacity and into certain families and cultures. I try to believe in redemption.
If you were the slightest bit based, these people would have cut you out of your life a long time ago
They’re people I happen to know. They don’t call or come to my house. I am not particularly interested in whose standards I measure up to except my own and maybe God’s. If I were I’d find a cult to join.