Like nelie, I'm not directly affected (yet, knock on wood), but the impact on my neighbors is incredible - I could go down the block and tell you one by one who is furloughed or working without pay. I am not sure how many household budgets can absorb the impact of a prolonged shutdown, especially since it seems actually questionable this time that furloughed employees will get backpay. Edit to say - the impact on contractors is different, hard to quantify, but even a larger scale issue. Some are fine, some are not, depending on the size of the company, the company may be able to take care of its employees -- but others are just totally out of luck and filing for unemployment already.
It's hurting the DC area $200 million a day. And I know people demonize "the Beltway" and "bureaucrats" and contractors all the time, but the truth is, people here have come from all over the country, and they're just people like anyone else - good people, bad people, but mostly just people, trying to get through life. I know political discussions are not allowed here, so let's all refrain from crossing into that... but yes, I am seeing huge impacts where I live.
Last edited by Desiderata; 10-02-2013 at 12:46 PM.
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