Everybody I know, being effected by this, is looking at zeroing out their savings and facing $3k-$6k of debt just to make basic living payments (rent, min food, utilities, and commuting costs,...nothing for clothing, car repairs, or medical exp).
Our larger fear is that since nobody thinks this is such a big deal, that Obama will then continue the lack of budget into FY14, followed by random RIFs.
We all know the contractors still face new contracts and the new expenses developed over the past 20 years aren’t being reduced to the 80s levels, but instead, we’ve already been cut in half to 2/3, had salary freezes when utilities and rent have increased and gas costs have doubled. Still there isn’t any intuitive public sense of outrage except in areas where there should be no outrage.
Lots of people are either retiring, leaving service, looking to move out of the country, or are simply ignoring it thinking it isn’t really going to happen.
This helps too: