Just imagine living in a small Community like Hamilton Montana. Nice area, but the layoffs are here. Just watch what happens to the deep red part of the world. They do not have the job infrastructure to make up for these cuts. Welcome to the Delete part.
‘They can’t afford to live here’: Deep red Montana town faces DOGE fallout
Same has been happening all over the US, for a long time. The village of Lordstown, Ohio, has a population of 3,000. The entire county where Lordstown is, has a population of 200,000. At it’s peak, the GM assembly plant in Lordstown employed 11,000. The plant closed a few years ago, another statistic of GM’s shrinking market share.
Steve
From the linked article:
{ The conservative town contains a diverse assortment of ranchers, outdoor workers and scientists. Nearly 70% of county residents voted for Trump in 2024 }.
I’m gonna guess that the ones who did NOT vote red, are the high paid scientists… Who have options for employment elsewhere.
Give em what they voted for. GnH.
ralph
That is not the same. This was about Doge not about people not being able to compete in the market without Tariffs on the American people. This was a research facility staffed with Americans.
Let’s say you are right. That means 30 percent of the people will be moving out of the community. These were high paying jobs that supported Restaurants, Carpenters, Cleaners, Painters, landscapers etc. Hamilton is a very small town. Now you take away 30 percent of the top wage earners and then watch what happens to all the small business’s in the town. They also have to close up and it becomes a dominoe effect.
Maybe not… But it sure rhymes.
Back in 2001, the dot com crash caused taxes to dry up, so government funded grants dried up.
All across the US, grant funded projects and positions at government labs were cut.
I knew a dozen folks who were suddenly "good luck"ed.
According to the link, 70% VOTED FOR THAT.
Good n hard.
ralph
Ralph that was in a response to Steve and his referrence to the Automobile industry that had a downturn because they could not compete with lower wages and higher quality. Two things that drove a nail in the Automotive industry.
That is true and there is something to say for that. Maybe they need a good hard lesson.
The All In Podcast guys (billionaire VCs) say that the Big Beautiful Bill recently passed by the house, guts the Doge cuts and restores the swamp.
The incumbent are being obstacles to any real change.
Periodically, some L&S will try to make meaningful changes that cut spending and subsequent national debt growth.
That always results in committees, n studies, n lobbying, n filibustering… Such that the status quo remains the status quo.
I fully expect DOGE to have been an exercise in futility.
Doge exposed some problems, presented some solutions… And now the L&Ss will bypass it.
Somehow, we’ll muddle through.
ralph
FWIW
Billionaire VCs, from their billionaire POV, discuss lots of macroeconomic topics.
Budget comments start at 2:49.
Freiberg at about 3:00
Chamath starts at 8:28, says the Doge parts of Bill have been gutted.
David Sacks, AI czar to Trump, talks about the Bill at 14 minutes.
Those guys disgust me. They want the government to cut benefits for the most helpless and give them a big fat tax cut. They have enough money for 100 life times yet they want to steal everything they can from the bottom 10 percent. As you can see I am getting tired of the Billionaire Bro’s.
It’s a hold my nose and just listen.
They have direct face-yo-face access to the L$Ss.
I want to see what they are recommending to the L&S crowd.
Their discussion of tech topics is excellent, IMO.
ralph
I get that Ralph but I think Chamath is a chump with all his Spac stuff where he stole from people. I would rather listen to the BG2 Pod but those guys are cut from the same cloth.
Are you sure they are not the same?
GM closes plant after plant, laying of tens of thousands of people, because people in other countries, working for peanuts, can do the job cheaper.
The US government lays people off, because people educated at other countries’ expense, can do the same research at other countries’ expense, so any useful end result is available for purchase by the US, a lot cheaper, than funding the entire system.
Steve
But that’s not the case. The town has some 5000 people and 1800 households. The linked article said 41 people at the lab were let go.
DB2
Yes I am one is public and one is private.
Nice try, that is not even close to what is happening. They don’t even care about research because they can’t even spell it.
Have you ever lived in a town of 5000 people? Do you realize what happens when 41 households leave that were high paying jobs? Now that is just the beginning because in that community (I have lived just outside of it in a much smaller town) the Forest service has camps and facilities. Those also are going to get hit. Will the people survive? Yes. Are they going to struggle? Absolutely.
Currently doing so (actually 7,000).
My point was that less than one percent isn’t “30 percent of the people will be moving out of the community”.
DB2
How many people are in each family unit?
Back of the envelope calculation:
5000/1800 = 2.7
Next questions:
~ Are the people who work at the lab more or less likely to be married?
~ Are the people who work at the lab likely to have more or fewer children?
It is unlikely that 30% of the community will be moving out.
DB2
Lets do another back of the envelope calculation. You live in a town that is 40 percent larger than Hamilton. It looks like you have no clue of what you are talking about. That is if we can believe you because you have not told us what town we are talking about. You could be living in St. Louis.
Unfortunately, people will take only wrong lessons. Now, DOGE news is pretty much died down, but at its peak, republicans celebrated their family members losing job saying this is needed medicine. Separately, republican politicians are hearing about $DOGE cuts.
DOGE, tariff all are basically to pay for maintaining the tax cuts for the Rich. The folks who voted for Trump because he advocated no tax on Tips, will never get that, except Vegas, most places people really don’t pay tax on the tips!!!