AwesomeLowlander

By the same logic however, mods would have no power to actually moderate. Their moderation ability is directly proportional to their potential for abuse. And I think we can all agree we’ve long passed the point where communities are able to survive without moderation, at least in their current form (which is what OP is discussing).

If you’re going to remove 90% of the content on lemmy, is there even a point staying on it?

You do. But the point stands, on the scale of a govt budget, having a single full time employee (and even that is honestly overkill) is a drop in the ocean.

Apparently not, if you’re still thinking of Fediverse moderation as a single entity.

You do understand that the fediverse is not a single thing? Moderation on the fediverse is a meaningless term because it varies hugely depending which part of the fediverse you are visiting.

How much funding does a single software instance serving 3500 users really require? I could probably run it off my desktop.

You might find a better environment at Beehaw? Not my cup of tea, but each to their own.