Yep There are several reasons why government shutdowns don't really do anything One is that the government somehow manages to spend more money *not* providing "non-essential services" than it spends *providing* them: But it occurred to me today that there's another reason: since government shutdowns happen with some regularity, all government programs have an incentive to get listed as an essential service. So I looked it up and found out that's exactly what they've been doing for years now, and thus each "shutdown" shuts down less and less of the government every time it happens.