My excellent Conversation with Annie Lowrey
Here is the audio, video, and transcript. Here is the episode summary: Annie Lowrey’s new book, The Time Tax, argues that the most regressive levy in American life is the hours each of us must spend on hold, in waiting rooms, and filling out forms a competent state would have pre-filled — roughly fifty a year […] The post My excellent Conversation with Annie Lowrey appeared first on Marginal…
In a recent conversation, Annie Lowrey, author of "The Time Tax: How Government Wastes Our Time — And How to Fix It," discussed the concept of bureaucracy as a potential time tax in American life. She argued that the average American spends around fifty hours per year on hold, waiting rooms, and form-filling, with poorer individuals facing significantly more time spent on these tasks.
Lowrey highlighted welfare programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), as being particularly regressive, citing inflated bureaucracy as a major issue. She noted that the postal service and Social Security's retirement programs are both efficient, with the latter having an overhead cost of less than 1%.
The discussion also touched upon the potential benefits and drawbacks of bureaucracy, with Lowrey suggesting that it might help screen for immigrants with the right attitude, deter fraud, and ration services for treatments with little effectiveness. When questioned about the possibility of AI agents handling these bureaucratic tasks, Lowrey believed that this might become a reality within the next five years.
As the conversation progressed, Lowrey and her guest, Tyler Cowen, delved into various topics, including the potential drawbacks of federalism, the need for easier voting, and the role of Christianity in liberalism and the post-Christian right. They also touched on the importance of addressing rural areas' challenges and the potential consequences of discouraging people from living in these regions.
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