Closing All Those Departments: What Happens To The People Who Work For Them?

[Fort Lauderdale]

Ron Paul wants to close the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education, and Housing and Urban Development. My question is, what would happen to all the people that work for those departments? They will be unemployed. Will they get a severance package from the U.S. government (President Ron Paul) until they find other jobs? How many people would be out of work if all these departments get closed?

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/...ts-axing-5-us-federal-departments-and-budgets

"Presidential hopeful Ron Paul's new proposal to slash federal spending would wipe out large chunks of the government's research portfolio. The congressman from Texas and Republican candidate has unveiled a budget plan to reduce the deficit that would eliminate five federal departments: Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education, and Housing and Urban Development. In one fell swoop, such a step would erase, among other programs, the Energy Department's $5-billion Office of Science, the $4.5-billion National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the $750-million National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the $1.1-billion U.S. Geological Survey."

 

[kpitcher]

I don't have the numbers, but one minor thing :

Paul did mention that not everything within a department would get slashed but possibly moved around. He gave an example of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission being moved to the Dep of Defense. This was part of his Meet the Press interview.

I like that, keep the important stuff, trash the garbage.

 

[Join The Paul Side]

They can join the rest of us in our misery of competing with thousands of others looking for a job.

 

[1836]

They get a real job where they don't get Columbus day off, or a car allowance, or an exercise room on the fifth floor.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Their jobs are stolen from the economy and financed by money the government steals from us. Theft on top of theft.

 

[V3n]

He's said some roles will be transitioned off into other departments, he's also spoken of attrition - where some people will voluntarily leave or retire, and they just won't be replaced.

The jobs he's talking about are a drain on the economy, a drain on prosperity, once you cut 1T from the budget, the society becomes more prosperous and they will be able to find jobs in the private sector.

In his announcement speech he did say he has a "personal conviction that the cuts would not hurt anybody", firing folks with no safety net would be a hurt, so I'm convinced he's not going to do that.

 

[sparebulb]

We'll know that the country is on its way to recovery when we see McDonald's, McHome Depot, McLowe's and McNowhere's holding job fairs for displaced federal workers. Former federal workers already possess the skills these dead-end jobs require, these people already know how to make that stupid look on their face when a customer makes an intelligent request.

 

[tremendoustie]

They'll get real jobs, producing things people need, efficiently. This will vastly increase productivity, and overall wealth.

Paying able people to dig ditches and fill them in, or push paperwork, is a huge drain and helps not at all.

 

[TonySutton]

I doubt there are many teachers in the Dept of Education. Its biggest job seems to be managing grant money going to states and aid to students. It adds another layer of government where it is not needed. The states already have their own departments of education and are capable of raising money themselves for the projects the people of that state wish to promote. There is no need for an extra level of government forcing one size fits all programs down to the states.

The only valid function they seem to have deals with indian schools and I doubt they are doing a good job at that.

 

[specsaregood]

They'll get real jobs, producing things people need, efficiently. This will vastly increase productivity, and overall wealth.

Paying able people to dig ditches and fill them in, or push paperwork, is a huge drain and helps not at all.

especially when we have been paying them double the private sectore when all benefits are included.

 

[tremendoustie]

especially when we have been paying them double the private sectore when all benefits are included.

exactly

Wasting resources is not a benfit. "Jobs" are not the core problem -- that's Keynesian nonsense. We could draft everyone to be government paper pushers, and we'd all have jobs -- and we'd be naked and starving. Production of real goods and services that improve people's lives determines overall wealth.

 

[Fort Lauderdale]

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...-What-Happens-To-The-People-Who-Work-For-Them

He claims that nobody will be laid off, people will be transferred and jobs will be removed via attrition.

Where exactly will they be transferred? Are the people who work for the Department of Education qualified to teach in elementary, high school or college? Do they have license, certification? Does the department of education produce SATs and other standardized tests?

No, but they are probably qualified enough to clean toilets.


No.

 

[pmbug]

Public sector jobs come at a much higher cost than private sector jobs. They suck more wealth out of the real economy than they give back.

 

[123tim]

My question is this - how can we afford to pay all of these government employees when our current national debt is.....

Refresh this page to see how much the National Debt has gone up since you started reading this message.

(Courtesy of U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK)
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

 

[brandon]

What about all the people that are already unemployed because the government is taking money from private job creators and using it to create these useless government jobs?

 

[specsaregood]

What about all the people that are already unemployed because the government is taking money from private job creators and using it to create these useless government jobs?

Well see, they don't count because they are already unemployed.

 

[fisharmor]

We'll know that the country is on its way to recovery when we see McDonald's, McHome Depot, McLowe's and McNowhere's holding job fairs for displaced federal workers. Former federal workers already possess the skills these dead-end jobs require, these people already know how to make that stupid look on their face when a customer makes an intelligent request.

This wins the lulz, but I'd like to add something to this...
The thing about government jobs is that the people directly employed by the federal budget isn't the sum of all employees that this money is supporting.
I live in the "wealthiest area in the country", the DC suburbs.
I know a lot of people who "work for the government", but I know comparatively few who actually work directly for the government.
Most of them are contractors. Most of them have a pretty good body of work experience, including military service.
Some of them are actually pretty clever.

The clever ones are the ones that are actually doing any work. The rest of them are paper-pushers, sure... but even the bureaucrats have work experience they can draw on.

What you'll see, I think, is this:
All the people who can do something will immediately start to do something.
All the contractor companies that can do something will find something to do that doesn't involve the federal tit, and will take employees with them.
The ones that can't do anything will go belly up, and get liquidated, and other people will start doing things with their assets.
People will be out of work, especially here, where nothing of real value has been done in decades.

However, I think Virginia and Maryland will be at a crossroads at that point. They'll realize, and quickly, that they have large unemployment in the area of the state that was previously floating the bill for the entire rest of the state. This is actually a huge political issue here in VA, and has been for decades: you go south of here and there's not much besides tobacco fields. Northern Virginia has been flirting with leaving the rest of the state for decades because they're basically financing the whole operation here and the locals resent the hell out of that, considering our traffic is second worst in the country and we have trouble financing solutions to it.

Turn that situation on its head, where the tobacco farmers are now financing the metropolitan areas that used to get federal tit money, and it'll get real interesting here.

This is where the deregulation needs to come in.
If the localities like Northern Virginia are told at the time it's happening that they'll be able to industrialize or pursue other avenues, then they actually will have a good talent pool to draw from.
I think that's the key, and it needs to be stated often and loudly as we push for this thing.
It will be up to the states that formerly housed federal tentacles to figure out how to use those resources intelligently.
The most intelligent use is to relax the grip the local governments have on the economy as well.
The most disastrous thing that could happen is if the state and local governments push forward with Keynesian ideas, instead of also implementing free market ideas.

 

[sailingaway]

Ron said most of the personel cuts would be through attrition however, there will doubtless be some dislocation. On the other hand, we've had that sort of dislocation ever since the economy cratered, we've lost MILLIONS of jobs, and this is setting the situation right so the economy can bounce back and everyone has a good chance of getting a job if they want one. Remember Ron would also be bringing the troops home BUT NOT DISCHARGING THEM so the stimulus from their wages here with them needing housing and food and clothes and entertainment will also create jobs. Currently, we are subsidizing other nations with their wages.

 

[slamhead]

Ron Paul answered that question. He said those jobs would be phased out over time and these people will be absorbed by the private sector as the economy improves.

 

[Okie RP fan]

First, after attacking policies of the Fed, lowering corporate taxes which would help draw jobs back, jobs will come the longer Paul is president.

The point is that we MUST start cutting a.s.a.p.