[dragontamer]

> People working in the government are not fungible labor units like GPUs or VMs, to be spun up and disposed of without consequence. The network formed between people is even more important than the individual jobs - and it has an insane cold-start penalty.

I don't believe those networks are ever destroyed.

In practice, those networks will be transferred to the private sector, and the government will have to pay premium money to hire them back as consultants rather than as government workers.

There's exceptions: maybe there's a 60-year-old super-old guy who is at near retirement age, and takes this opportunity to take an early retirement and refuses to answer any phone calls to come back. But I don't think these people are the norm. Offer any 60-year-old or even 70-year-old enough money and strictly promise them its a temporary rebuilding moment and they'll likely come back.