Government employees: The most spoiled and privileged individuals on Earth
NASA: home to the privileged and perfect
Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, NASA employees and many of their supporters gathered yesterday for protests, demanding that their jobs be saved and that Congress not only cancel Trump’s proposed budget cuts to NASA, that Congress even consider increasing the budget because the work they do is so so SO vital.
The protests appeared to be organized by several groups, all claiming to be “grassroots” but all seeming to be well funded and comparable to other recent government protest groups at other agencies, issuing sanctimonious “declarations” that claim the cuts “to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security.”
Yet, the Trump cuts would only reduce NASA’s staffing of 17,000 by about 2,600 employees. How horrible!
This quote from the first link above is typical of the attitude of these government workers:
Morale at facilities like NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland has plummeted. One scientist who attended the June 30 demonstration works as a postdoc at Goddard, through a contractor, on the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission, and told Space.com the past few years at NASA have been their “absolute dream job.”
“I love it,” said the Goddard scientist, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “And this year has been an utter nightmare that has not stopped since January.” [emphasis mine]
All in all, this person’s words distills these complaints down to the basics: “I have a great job and it is unfair that anyone should ever consider canceling it! It should be mine for life!”
None of these protesters or declarations ever propose any alternative suggestions for gaining some control over the federal deficit. None propose ways to streamline and make more efficient the operations at NASA, which in recent years has been routinely ill-managed and wasteful. All seem to think that the work these government workers do is blessed by God, and anyone who dares suggest any changes or staffing reductions are worse than the devil, and should fry in hell!
Meanwhile, did you hear any similar whines coming from the 9,000 or so Microsoft employees the company announced in early July that it will lay off in the coming months? Nope. Those Microsoft employees — like all workers in the private sector — recognized that no job is permanent, that circumstances change, and that the company has the right and financial need to make these changes to survive. If you get fired or laid off, there is always more work. You just need to roll up your sleeves and go out and find it.
Chicken Little rules!
For government employees, however, it appears this idea is beyond horrifying. How dare Trump tell them to look for new jobs! They work for the federal government! No one is ever supposed to fire them!
Personally I am quite tired of these political tantrums. I also suspect that a majority of Americans feel the same way. For decades no cuts to any government program have been permitted, because every time someone in office has even hinted at such cuts, this kabuki theater of protests would rise up, screaming that to lay off even one government worker would cause the sky to fall!
Yet, there is room for cuts at NASA, just as there is room for cuts in every federal department. Trump’s proposed budget is not madness. Though there is definitely room for debate and some of his proposed cuts appear penny wise and pound foolish, overall the proposed budget is remarkably reasonable. A line-by-line review reveals that it tries hard to streamline operations, reduce duplicate efforts, and focus spending on NASA’s core mission, to explore space.
Trump’s cuts deserve a fair hearing. Unfortunately, the whines of government workers is apparently preventing that from happening, as our corrupt Congress is far more willing to give treats to these spoiled children than serve the American taxpayer who pays the bills.
And so civilization falls.
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As Dan Aykroyd, playing Ghostbuster Dr. Raymond Stantz, famously says, “”I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results,””
On the one hand, it’s true that the NASA budget is a pretty small slice of the federal budget, and has been for a long time. You can wipe out its entire $25 billion ledger and you are not going to make a major dent in a $1.9 trillion annual budget deficit.
On the other hand, it *is* still part of the federal budget, and it is not inequitable to suggest that every agency and every department should have to make *some* sacrifice. To listen to some NASA peeps (and their supporters) NASA should simply be exempt, because the work it does is so valuable.
The wisdom of some of the cuts proposed aside (we have all discussed these here already in recent week) one thing that weakens the Trump Administration’s stance is that it’s biggest disappointment is that the Big Beautiful Bill leaves the deficit number a whole lot bigger than promised. That is not what Trump had in his own proposal, but he has accepted the BBB as his own now. Obviously, its like herding cats (corrupt cats) to get anything through Congress, but a lot of pork looks to be getting through on the final bill, and some of that pork is even more offensive than certain useless bodies working at Goddard or the Cape.
The most spoiled and privileged folks on Earth are Doordashers—like one that drove on a bloody airport tarmac thinking that everything had to stop over a bag of burgers.
They act like security guards are supposed to be their waiters and that truck lanes and runways are their personal parking lots. Worse, management will side with the punks against their own security team.
It wouldn’t do for me to get Gary Mitchell powers–for I’d do things to them that would make Vlad the Impaler sick.
Keith Cowling’s NASAwatch site and X account has become a kind of wailing wall with the cries about how NASA is being decimated!! Its ironic since he has castigated NASA over the years for the multi billion dollar screwups. One way to change things is reorganization NASA is still using working models/centers they used in Apollo.
How much of the NASA cuts are to ‘off mission’ things. It’s concentration on global warming, on ‘Muslim outreach’ etcetera? Downsizing by cutting things which aren’t an agency responsibility anyway.
Why do we even NEED to keep NASA funded? WHAT have they done with all the BILLION$ since the last shuttle mission? How can NASA even claim to be a top notch, vital mission when so many “startups” have run rings around anything that NASA did? Sure, in the beginning (when they were the ONLY game in town) NASA was the KING! Not so much now. And we all remember when the jug eared jesus declared NASA’s “mission” to be “enlightening Muslims”! I prefer the latest “en LIGHTENING” that PRESIDENT TRUMP ordered!! NO, every DOLLAR that is saved or NOT WASTED on unnecessary programs or Gov’t ee’s is a DOLLAR less in debt!
I do have empathy for anyone who loses a job – it’s NOT a pleasant thought to have no means of support or medical benefits – but let’s be REALISTIC – the MAJORITY of Gov’t jobs are nothing more than VOTE BUYING and both sides are guilty!
Remove the 30 or so MILLION ILLEGALS and there will be MANY jobs available! Maybe not the cushy a/c office jobs, but JOBS!
I read a screed by one of these mother’s darlings on LinkedIn a few days back. She was complaining that she was getting laid-off as part of the Trump Administration’s war on science (or more properly Science! (TM)). That space science would be irrevocably harmed by her departure.
So what job did she have? She was a photographer. She did PR shoots. That was her contribution to space science. Seem to me she has a job that defines fat and not muscle,
Even sadder? This cri de coeur came to my attention because a co-worker (who does actual engineering, too) liked it putting on my notices. The inability of some engineers at NASA to be able to distinguish between what is significant and what is BS is one reason *everything* at NASA comes in late and overbudget.
Ronaldus Magnus—
Ghostbusters (1984)
“Private Sector”
https://youtu.be/RjzC1Dgh17A
(0:59)
Ronaldus Magnus—
Ghostbusters (1984)
“Private Sector”
https://youtu.be/RjzC1Dgh17A
(0:59)
Ever since Obama NASA has become a huge joke. How has it made the average citizen’s life better? What has it accomplished. As far as I can see it is Musk who is advancing space flight and exploration, not NASA.
To Rocket J.
I dare say Cowing himself is the cause for the cuts.
Imagine, if you will, a couple squabbling in the forest–whose noise attracts a predator that de-alives them both.
That’s what happened.
New Space and Old Space fussed –but MSFC (that Keith considered the Conservative Center) was always Cowing ‘s chief target–since he is a Goddard-hugging climate alarmist.
He wants both Marshall AND SpaceX to die.
I’d prefer they’d join forces.
First of all, the post doc who is being quoted in the article is not a government employee. So, he or she is not a “privileged” government worker. He or she is with a private or non-profit contractor and can be fired as easily as a MSFT employee if their performance is bad. The funding comes from the government however. NASA Goddard used to have more than 80% contractors (who can be fired anytime) but only about 20% government workers. This post doc was probably hired to do a certain type of research based on his Ph.D. Science post docs don’t even get the pay of starting data science workers. The research is not commercial research and so only government can fund such type of research. If the government doesn’t want to fund such type of research, this administration should come out and say so. We (the US) are the leaders in most science and engineering disciplines. If we want to cede that to some other country, let’s do so with both our eyes open. After all, researching gravity in the universe by a post doc who gets paid $60k a year after spending 22+ years of schooling is not worth paying for. Let’s make that clear and be precise about what exactly the cuts that are being proposed. This slow and painful process of not knowing who is making decisions on what basis is not efficient or appropriate. The complaint is based on that. In addition, treat all your citizens (including government workers) as human beings. Of course this post doc could do something else- probably do some number crunching for Wall Street and make several times more money with his or her math and programming skills. Alas, not everyone is motivated by money. Have any of you looked at how much it costs an hour to fly some of the large government airplanes? Compare that to the yearly pay of this post doc. See the article below for reference.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-bidens-delaware-trips-cost-154015131.html
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”
Let’s make that clear and be precise about what exactly the cuts that are being proposed.
OK.
If it’s not shooting (or exploding) or carrying something that is shootable (or explodable) (logistics), it’s out of military budget.
If it’s not in the Constitution, it’s out of the budget.
No NASA.
No DOE (both of them).
No FDA. If you insist, privatize it; “FDA approved” becomes like “Underwriters’ Laboratory approved”.
No USDA (if you insist, privatize the inspections).
No NWS (again, privatize – if people want weather reports, they can pay for them directly)
No CDC (if you can’t trust them, what’s the point?)
No NIH (if no one wants to fund health research, we can all just die young.)
No DoI (why does the federal government run parks?!?! Selling all that land will get rid of the deficit.)
I’ve recently come to the conclusion that weights & measures is important, but what’s up with all the weird screw heads?!? Does anyone even know if they’re doing their job? Has anyone ever confirmed that grocery store scales are accurate? That gas pump gallons are actually a gallon? Doesn’t the ISO set all the standards, these days? Privatize it.
That was off the top of my head. No doubt I’ve missed over half of the unconstitutional departments.
I am ok with the DoI, the FDA, and the USDA. Though I do think they all need a little tuning up.
The ATF should be de-fanged. though I could see then changed into an something like underwriters.
They guarantee legal drugs like marijuana for strength and purity.
I would like to see marijuana packaged like cigarettes. Labeled dosage and purity.
As for firearms I could see them approving the design for functionality. But not for type, style or accessories.
I could go on for weeks about what I would like. But I also see the potential troubles with my ideas.
Mark Sizer wrote: “That was off the top of my head. No doubt I’ve missed over half of the unconstitutional departments.”
The only departments that are needed are the ones that the United States started with:
The Department of Defense, one of the two purposes to have a government: To defend the citizens’ rights from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Could be called the war department.
The Department of Justice, the other purpose to have a government: To peaceably resolve disputes as an indifferent third party while protecting the citizens’ rights.
The Department of the Treasury, needed to operate a government.
The Department of State, needed for a government to interact with foreign nations. Could be called the peace department.
A last function of a free nation’s government is to stay out of the citizens’ way. Why would a people create government if it would enslave the creators?
Government employees were at one time public servants. This lasted a couple of centuries, but then these employees saw themselves as a ruling class, and they saw the people they were hired to serve and to protect as their servants.
A couple of decades ago I was between jobs and at a party talked with a teacher who believed that it was my responsibility to get another job (rather than see myself as an early retiree) just so that I could pay the taxes that paid her salary. No other reason. She saw me as a mere source of money for her to spend. That was an eye opener.
Now I discover that even the underutilized yet talented, skilled, and knowledgable NASA employees no longer see themselves as servants providing the world with advanced technology but as an entitled class, and that we are mere sources of money for them to spend. This is another eye opener. The last group that I trusted in government has succumbed to greed and power.
Our public servants once were rewarded with excellent pensions after a mere twenty-year career, after which they could seek another employment out here in the real world, in the commercial world. But after public servants were allowed to unionize,* they started becoming overpaid with even better retirement benefits, and they stopped retiring after their twenty years, seeing themselves as those entitled rulers of We the People. No wonder so many of todays American governments are so costly.
There are scores, if not hundreds, of new companies starting to do business in space, and they could use the talents, skills, and knowledge that NASA employees have. If NASA is downsized, like many companies, then these people can find or found new space companies.
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* The purpose of unions was to ensure that workers share in profits. Government has no profits, so what was the purpose of government unions? If unions were created to stand up to unfair employers, then unions for government employees must have been created because government was an unfair employer. Unless they were created in order to suck more blood from We the People, the newly forged slaves of the ruling-class-government-employee.
DOE you need for nukes–something the founders didn’t count on.
Same with MSFC in terms of outward expansion in case SpaceX fails.
EPA and State Department?
Yeah–roast them alive with phosphorus.
Mark Sizer July 22, 2025 at 12:37 pm: “… Doesn’t the ISO set all the standards, these days? Privatize it.”
NIST is the US Department of Commerce standards body. ISO is international, and is already private. ISO suffers in commercial adoption by comparison to NIST, because ISO makes money charging for access to its published standards. Anyone seeking standards to adopt will first look at the free ones.
Commercial space has done a lot of innovation in areas where NASA failed to capitalize, but they have also benefited in places from NASA standards for already-solved technical problems. If NASA wants to be a permanent beneficiary of commercial space, especially where interoperability between contractors/providers is important, they need to shift a whole lot more funding toward developing publicly available standards. Standardization has long been starved for funding within NASA, as legacy missions don’t care to fund developing (much less adopting) new standards while upcoming missions care only about baselining them as mission requirements (but by then it’s too late to develop and publish).