"That was before Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency started hacking away at our bureaucracy. Before the federal government was shut down for much of the fall. And before I bought a Geiger counter to do my own food inspections. For a while-maybe since 1883, when the Pendleton Act created a merit-based civil service of experts-we, as a nation, thought to ourselves: Life is too short for everyone to inspect their own food. Let the government handle this."
"About 300,000 civil servants-roughly 10 percent of the federal workforce- left their job between January and late November last year, according to the Office of Personnel Management. In February 2025, hundreds of weather forecasters and other employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were canned. In June, the National Science Foundation was told it had to leave its headquarters."
Government staffing cuts and agency disruptions have weakened public oversight of safety and regulation, prompting individuals to undertake personal inspections. An individual purchased a $22.79 Geiger counter to measure radiation in food and began treating dismantled government functions as personal tasks. FDA inspections at foreign food manufacturers have fallen to historic lows due to staffing reductions. Approximately 300,000 civil servants—about 10 percent of the federal workforce—left between January and late November of the previous year. In February 2025, hundreds of NOAA employees were dismissed, and in June the National Science Foundation was ordered to vacate its headquarters.
Read at The Atlantic
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