Today the United States Government went into a partial shutdown. Also, I happened to have lunch with employees of the Georgia State Archives. (The past couple weeks I have worked on helping with working out the kinks of their move to the Board of Regents information technology infrastructure.)

The restaurant where we ate appeared to my eye to seat easily over a hundred people. And normally on a Tuesday would be on a wait. Several in our party wondered why it was less than half full. One finally realized no one in uniform was present. Fort Gillem sat less than a mile away and this restaurant was a popular lunch destination for those who work there. About 1,700 employees are civilians, so 90-95% of them are probably furloughs for this shutdown. I suspect the reservists and active-duty personnel whether working or not realize they are not getting paid until this resolves, so going out to eat is probably something they will stop.

Government employees like their private sector equivalents spend money to have a life. They support local economies. These jobs trickle down.

Though, I wonder about the studies estimating the economic impacts of universities on their areas. One of these days I will actually need to read one of them and look at the methods.

How the shutdown affects those who depend upon the business of government employees is the disappointing message missing from the media stories I hear.