If the government (U.S.) were to shut down how would we know it (that it had been shut down)?

You'll know it.

National parks will be closed. Government offices will close. The FBI will be hard to reach. Military units won't be doing much of anything.

From the link below:

"If you're applying for a passport or visa, you will likely be out of luck. First-time home buyers looking for a mortgage will be delayed because the Federal Housing Administration will be closed. And the 401 national parks will be off-limits starting Tuesday morning. The biggest fear for hundreds of thousands of federal workers - and members of the military - will be if they receive back pay. In the last shutdown nearly two decades ago, workers received lost wages. That's not guaranteed this time.

And why everyone should care: a shutdown will cost, not save, taxpayers' money. A study from the Office of Management and Budget puts the overall economic price tag for a shutdown around $2 billion."

Only if you were a government employee, oddly enough, who is considered non-essential.

The undersecretary for the Department of Redundancy Department, for example.

Remember, we have been on a reduced shutdown for over six months now. The "sequester" rules Obama wanted four years ago are still in effect. Not that anyone has noticed.

You have Internet access (otherwise you wouldn't be asking this question on the Internet). You can check the news web sites when you wake up in the morning. Unless something very big happens overnight somewhere in the world (like Iran nuking Israel), it will be the top story.

Unless you work for the government, you probably will only know it if they tell you on the news. It would take months before it has any affect at all on the average person.

How much did the sequester affect you?

The media will be sure to show all the closed national parks and the kids crying because their vacation is ruined. None of them will think to ask why the kids aren't in school.

It would be easier to get in and out of DC

It would smell better there

The news might be watchable if it went on long enough

Nothing changes really. Your stocks might loose value and you can't get into any federal parks, museums or National Monuments but other that- Who cares?

Unless you work for the government - like Veterans Hospital or federal court etc then you ain't gettin paid ! ouch!

it happens every weekend