What will YOU be doing during the shutdown?

I'm doing the usual. Work, games, TV Tropes, writing in spare time, etc. the whole thing doesn't affect me in any real way.

Which is equally funny because the last shutdown in '95 didn't affect me either. (Granted I was 10...)

I'll live. Like every day. Because for once I'm not even American, and even if I was I probably wouldn't see a bloody difference .

Hope that the state doesn't decide to suspend my pay in the interim (as an employee of the state university, I do get paid by the [state] government...)

My usual stuff. Watch a movie, work on my short story, steal people's cars as they watch football games...

Homework, mostly. :B

I'm not living alone so I don't think it will affect my daily life significantly.

The same as always since it doesn't directly affect me. (Not to say that it can't affect me indirectly, but it certainly changes little for me right away. It's more down the line that's worth worrying about.)

edited 30th Sep '13 10:58:16 PM by rmctagg09

Feeling glad I live in Canada.

Sleep, breakfast, work. Same ol'.

Not much other than the usual - may need to explain to a few people what it all means.

Watching to see if the Murkins eat each other. I think they probably will.

Life is too short to worry about things like that - especially something that while it hasn't happened recently, in our Governments overall history is not all that rare.

I will be laughing all the way from Australia, with our free healthcare and very lame but functional government.

(Kidding - I'm feeling you guys. As much as Tony A-boat hates to admit it, there's plenty of room to share. Flights could be suspended soon, so either book soon or get a cruise :P)

Be prepared for a crapstorm for the free healthcare comment.

Meh. There's always some Rand-wannabe getting butthurt about how giving medicine to sick people for free is Teh Evul Socialism. It's more funny than anything.

If I am attacked for a comment of free healthcare, I will stand my ground and fight back.

If you are poor or unprivileged, you should have the right to free healthcare. My friend has been struggling with sickness for over 2 weeks, and can not afford a visit to the doctor. She's gone into work as a server every day she's been rostered though - but what happens if she gets sick in a way that will harm her employment? If she can't afford medical care when she's too sick to work, she will lose money that she needs for basic necessities and could lose her job.

...anyway, big hugs from Australia. We're pretty stupid on the political front also, but we're not grinding the country to a halt over healthcare.

Biding my time until this bucket of tar and bag of feathers become eminently useful.

When are they ever not useful?

Probably living my life normally. Homework, school, video games and all.

What is this "shutdown" though? I haven't heard anything of the sort until now.

The United States' government is broke, so they're closing the country for a while.

Mental.

@Invurie: You surprised? We've got ourselves a government which has demonstrated a pathological unwillingness to govern. Explains why they're slightly less popular than syphilis and hangovers right now.

edited 1st Oct '13 2:14:11 AM by drunkscriblerian

That sounds a bit drastic. I know we're in more debt than we have grass.

So, does this mean, like... no McDonalds or anything? (Sorry. I'm a dumb kid who tends to turn a blind eye to politics.)

@Nes: no, just that a bunch of government offices will be inoperable - conveniently, a lot of the watchdog agencies which keep big corporations from fucking us harder than they already do - and 800,000 government workers will be not working or drawing pay. And if it goes on long enough, a bunch of soldiers in combat might not get paid either.

But...but... I thought lack of governance was considered a Good Thing over there? All Freedom-y and stuff.

If they'd let the privately-owned banks go to the wall (as your government and ours both should have done) then a few investors would've been burned but you wouldn't now be in the situation where your soldiers aren't getting paid and half the country's services are closed for business.

We're not that badly off yet, but it's getting pretty clear that the wheels are going to come off the UK at some point. Scotland is the only country in the UK with any income anymore, which is why Double Dip Dave and friends so desperately want us to stay.

Nessy - I'll need to keep this brief, but basically the US can't agree on their budget, and one of the biggest reasons is because of the Healthcare provisions which have some money funneled their way.

Because of how the US budget works, which is to say Congress needs to approve a budget as it would legislation, it gets VERY complicated.