The US has some very strange definitions of Freedom.

Forcing people to work without paying them sounds like another one of those “uniquely American” problems like school shootings or healthcare.

It sucks but the alternative is to let the government spend nonexistent money in violation of statute.

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.

Always interesting seeing Americans justify the dysfunction of their system.

This is terrible, and simply shouldn’t happen in what is ostensibly the best country in the world. Don’t justify it.

I wish you had something more substantive than "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.

All money is "pretend money"

Only if you fundamentally ignore like, exceedingly basic macro economics.

The US is $38 TRILLION Dollars in debt. I think it’s safe to say it’s been operating on pretend money for a long while.

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 don't recall saying that was fine.

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.

They have now compromised and the compromise is everything Trump wants and nothing the people want. Like usual with Democrats.

"Explanation" and "justification" are not synonyms, even if you just want an excuse for a Twitter-esque slap at Americans.

> It sucks but the alternative is

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.

.... That's not a justification. That's an explanation of how our system, in reality, works.

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.

In the actual real world there are developed countries that don’t put up with this dysfunction.

>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.

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.

Their contract doesn't permit them to resign?

They'll get back pay when gov resumes, and they know it. It doesn't make it any easier to get by in the meantime, especially for those that live paycheck to paycheck.

Yep. Tricky for those that have childcare costs that they now cannot meet. Some in similar positions are forced out of work.

Is this like mandatory you have to work, or ... you have to work or you'll be fired?

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..

Have to work but can phone in sick, more and more of them will phone in sick.

It's a weird system over the pond I have to say.

I think its also, you'll never have a federal job again.

a very strange group of people to play chicken with as well, considering how important their job is

ATC has played this game of chicken before and lost. I'm sure they are well aware they need to tread carefully.

I doubt history will repeat on that.

> air traffic controllers who are required to work without pay

What happens to them if they just refuse to work? They certainly cannot be prosecuted, as the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery.