Air Traffic Controllers Warn of 'tipping Point' as Us Gov Shutdown Drags On
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The ongoing US government shutdown is affecting air traffic controllers who are working without pay, sparking concerns and criticism in the HN community. The discussion revolves around the shutdown's impact and the political motivations behind it.
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Nov 5, 2025 at 11:12 AM EST
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Nov 10, 2025 at 9:37 AM EST
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Super weird that this part is actually legal. Either they should be required to work or goverment should be required to pay.
If the former, I always wonder about folks who were set to retire, age out, got a new job they're starting, have health issues, etc..
It's a weird system over the pond I have to say.
Forcing people to work without paying them sounds like another one of those “uniquely American” problems like school shootings or healthcare.
And nobody is forced to work, like being at a startup that has some liquidity hiccups, sometimes you take a delayed paycheck. Other times you find other work.
And for the nonessential employees, they legally can't work but get paid for their time when the government reopens. If you aren't living paycheck to paycheck, it's a great opportunity to work on that Steam backlog.
This is terrible, and simply shouldn’t happen in what is ostensibly the best country in the world. Don’t justify it.
The system is behaving correctly in the face of political dysfunction. Republicans don't want to fund healthcare subsidies and they don't want to negotiate appropriations in the house because Epstein. Democrats want healthcare subsidies. They have failed to compromise.
It is good that the system is gradually grinding to a halt. It forces a resolution and provides valuable data for voters. It would be worse if the government could carry on indefinitely using pretend money. I especially don't trust this administration with the power of pretend money. It is also good that the government didn't fully deadlock on day 1. Many critical services remain functional.
This isn't a great situation but I would be interested to hear about systems that handle deadlocks more gracefully. For sure I am cautiously on board with the idea of holding new elections in the event of legislative dysfunction.
Also it’s bizarre you're fine with millionaires who are still getting paid while doing nothing to resolve their lack of agreement withholding the pay of people going to work who can’t afford rent, food and healthcare. There is no world where that is ok.
I recommend you seek a better familiarity with nuance. It'll help you understand the difference between debt and pretend money.
Have a good day.
This is plain justification regardless of context.
With context it’s even worse, because the real alternative is to have a functional government, and a non far right president, who doesn’t happily kill people, if we want to talk about hypotheticals like using real money way after genie was let out of the bottle.
Also, "the real alternative is a completely hypothetical, made up universe" is bizarro nonsense. In the actual, real world, that actually exists today, there are two ways of doing a thing. That you don't like those isn't particularly relevant.
But hey, America/Americans suck, right? That's really all you wanted to get across in the first place.
No, ATC's are actually forced to work by statute and contract.
It's an incredibly demanding and selective job (you literally can't become one after age 30), so there are no ATC's on the bench.
What happens to them if they just refuse to work? They certainly cannot be prosecuted, as the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery.
No, they will not. They will make a deal, probably covering spending until the end of this year.
A majority of (or at least, enough) Democrats decide they want something unpopular.
They calculate exactly how many Democrats need to vote for the thing they want to happen. Notice how it always passes by one vote.
They figure out which Democrats who want the unpopular thing and will suffer the fewest consequences by voting for it. Notice how the Democrats who voted for the unpopular thing are always ones who are either unable to be voted out soon, or are guaranteed to be voted out because they hit term limits soon, and in either case they have nothing to lose by being unpopular.
Only those Democrats vote for the unpopular thing, and the remaining Democrats and the party as a whole suffer minimal reputational damage.
In this case, the Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer, despite voting against the unpopular thing because his reputational damage would not be minimal, was almost certainly involved in organizing it.
They may or may not compensate them for being the fall guys. Possibly the thing itself is enough compensation. Politicians love when their private jets are allowed to take off because air traffic controllers are getting paid (or forced to work for no pay).