Take away pay from house & senate members while the government is shut down, they don't deserve the special treatment. Then we'll see how fast this all gets resolved.
People keep suggesting this without thinking it through
Many congress members are quite wealthy. They could easily go without their salary at all, for their entire tenure. These people tend to make money off stock trading (at suspiciously high rates, but that's a different discussion), in addition to other investments and "consulting" generating revenue for them
There are, however, at least a few congress members that are not independently wealthy. Those members are actually working class and rely on their salary to live. Those people are the ones that will be squeezed without a paycheck
What do you think the end result of that will be?
The wealthy members of congress will be able to use shutdowns as a bludgeon to force the working class members to vote in line with them. The wealthy can hold out indefinitely. The working class can only hold out until rent is past-due
Long term, I'd expect to see two other knock-on effects. Working class members of congress will be heavily incentivized to start making very good stock picks to have backup income, or more outright corruption. The second effect would be a chilling effect on working class candidates even running for congress
Does that sound like a positive outcome? Are those the incentives you want in congress?
We could have both, reform for leadership performing trades AND we can stop paying them when the government shuts down. But this story was about the FAA workers who don't get paid with stocks.
We could have both, reform for leadership performing trades AND we can stop paying them when the government shuts down
Okay, so we give a lot of power to the wealthy members of congress. It doesn't change the fundamental calculus that your suggestion would shift power from working class members of congress to the wealthy members. Even without insider trading, many of them are multi-millionaires and will not care at all that they don't receive their salary for a while
But this story was about the FAA workers who don’t get paid with stocks
That one has an easy solution that doesn't involve giving more power to the wealthy: Continue paying ATC during the shutdown
A much better generalized solution would instead to be forced budget continuation. Can't pass a bill? The old budget continues until you do
Train the house and senate to do air traffuc control work.
"Plane crashes up 3000%"
But some how they are all Boeing planes.
I, for one, am incredibly excited to see widespread inconvenience for the middle class. Hopefully this will wake some of these people the fuck up. The super rich still won't be effected enough, but maybe this will help stir up some malcontent against Orange Julius from the people unaffected by SNAP cuts.
Private planes are still reliant on ATC, especially at out of the way, low traffic airports that will be the first to see cuts
If they're that low traffic, won't they just go uncontrolled?
You're so right, I always forget about GA.
Just in time for the holiday season too.
If they stopped providing services to FL180+ non-part-121 traffic they'd see way more reduction in load than just cancelling a little 121 traffic. Idk if anyone has looked at the unfiltered flight trackers but there are a fuck ton of private/business jets up in the flight levels and they're not flying as predictable of routes (usually into smaller satellite airports near the main ones). They can't do that though because it would upset all the rich people.
Maybe we should just reject all IFR flight plans with less than 20 passengers other than life flights. Make the rich fly low and slow.
So also cancel ALL cargo flights. Got it.
Don't threaten me with a good time
Damnit, I knew I was missing some important exclusion. Hope the people in charge put more thought into what they are doing than I do my lemmy comments lmao
Bonus points for VRF into IMC accidents thinning the billionaires out a bit. We can then call Gulfstreams "T tailed billionaire killers"
VRF into IMC should just be shortened to "Kobe landing"
I was going to make that joke but didn't have the guts to, bravo
I thought I was on /r/flying for a sec. Nice to see aviation people in Lemmy
I was at work when i made the original comment and didn't realize there were that many fellow aviation people here. I love to see it, but I feel like I would have put more thought into my comment if I'd known.
The super rich still won’t be effected enough
Not majorly, but less commerce translates to less money for them because they profit off of all of our legal transactions.
What does the American middle class “waking up” look like?
After actually thinking about it, a general strike would be pretty lit.
Cut only private jets.
Upvoted you, but they frequently fly out of smaller/private airports that don't have direct ATC control anyway, so it's unlikely that's a significant contributor to a solution. Though I definitely agree it should be done at whatever scale it can be to improve general conditions.
I'd imagine a lot of private jets do fly IFR though which does involve ATC. So even if they fly out of a non towered airport, they probably file their IFR plan with a towered airport and start talking to them once in the air.
Most of the airports that private jets fly in and out of do have a tower. Also, there’s a lot of ground holds recently due to en route controller shortages which limits how much traffic can be in the air, which of course affects private jets as well.
Yeah but lots of those towered smaller airports are staffed by contractor companies where the controllers are still getting paid normally rn
Thanks for the laugh!
I'm still trying to process the fact that a moron known for being on "The Real World" is Transportation Secretary. And it's been months.
Everything is just so. Fucking. Stupid.
remember he also redirected his wifes flight away from the affected areas during the doge cuts of the atc.
Richest country on the fucking planet yet we ~~can't~~ won't pay ATC 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦
If we can't even hold the nation hostage, what's the point of authoritarian control?!
Paying people for work is just that "waste, fraud, and abuse" the Confederates kept babbling about.
Just in time for the holidays, I’m here for it. Time for the middle class to wake the fuck up.
You guys have a middle class?
Guessing middle class is... college students with rich AF parents that pay to fly them home... and people really well set, but not quite in the private jet level.
This can't be good for the economy.
The shutdown accelerated this, but it's far from the root cause. Even when it lifts, it's still on a bad trajectory.
Can't reduce training standards without causing lots of other problems.
Automation in older ways is possible but complicated. More modern AI would be a disaster. Though they might try.
There isn't really an answer. Air travel can't continue as it was, and there aren't enough plans for trains to come close to making up for it.
I'm so glad I'm flying to one of the nations busiest airports next week.
If you're a right wing libertarian or neoliberal who believes that governments are always corrupt, inefficient and incompetent, the best way to prove yourself right is to ensure that the government is always corrupt, inefficient and incompetent.
Mother fucker. My wife my toddler and I are supposed to fly out on the 15th.
I really hope I don't get stuck in like.... Delaware.... With a 2 year old and no way home.
Oh well small price to pay for insurance coverage for folks that probably voted against their best interests.
I guess.

Thank you for the gif.
Because of that movie, Delaware is my go to for random ass place.
Thanks trump! Thanks Rs!
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