Another nuance in contextualizing the number of federal government employees is that there are now many contractors working for the federal government who may be omitted from counts of federal employees.
"Experts and the workers themselves acknowledge that reforms are needed in the federal work force, which counts around 2.4 million people, excluding the uniformed military and the Postal Service. The numbers have not grown significantly in the past decade, though the total of federal contractors had ballooned to an estimated five million by 2020, according to a Brookings Institution scholar."
So the key distortion in Krugman's Substack article is not counting contractors.
2 quick things. Who gives a fook what Krugman charges. And 2, three generations later I stand with Jabotinsky’s “The Iron Wall”, hmm good name for a military operation.
Another nuance in contextualizing the number of federal government employees is that there are now many contractors working for the federal government who may be omitted from counts of federal employees.
The NYT checked on the contractor issue and reports:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/us/politics/federal-workers-trump.html
"Experts and the workers themselves acknowledge that reforms are needed in the federal work force, which counts around 2.4 million people, excluding the uniformed military and the Postal Service. The numbers have not grown significantly in the past decade, though the total of federal contractors had ballooned to an estimated five million by 2020, according to a Brookings Institution scholar."
So the key distortion in Krugman's Substack article is not counting contractors.
I was aghast at the Anat Peled story in the Journal. Glad you made the right response.Jon
2 quick things. Who gives a fook what Krugman charges. And 2, three generations later I stand with Jabotinsky’s “The Iron Wall”, hmm good name for a military operation.