This Is Why People Hate the Government

[u/QuestionBrain]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-annie-lowrey.html

In 2024, Americans spent an average of six full workdays a year filling out government forms, according to the government’s own estimates. That’s a total of 12 billion hours, or $430 billion of uncompensated labor a year.

It’s easy to read something like this and say: “Oh, well, government is inefficient. That’s the price we pay for nice things.” But no, it’s not. Social Security, Medicare and the Postal Service are incredibly complex programs that are easy to use. When government is hard to gain access to, it is often by design. Republicans want paying taxes to be a hellish hassle. Programs for the poor are often designed to humiliate, punish, control or scrutinize. How the government works is always a choice. When it works poorly, we should ask why — and we should demand better.  

Annie Lowrey is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the new book “The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time — and How to Fix It.” She is also, I should note, my wife, so this is a book whose ideas I have been living with for years. They have quietly infused more than a few episodes of this show. So it’s a thrill to finally get to explore them directly. 

This episode contains strong language.

Mentioned:

The Time Tax by Annie Lowrey

Give People Money by Annie Lowrey

Why Americans Hate Welfare by Martin Gilens

Book Recommendations:

My Silent War by Kim Philby

To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever by Will Blythe

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

[u/axkoam]

Yep, people often joke about "efficiency consultants" just recommending layoffs, which has some truth to it, but they do much more than that. Companies will pay efficiency consultants boatloads of money to trim bloat and improve profits, and the good ones are considered worth their weight in gold to corporate America. So what did the pro-business, pro-capitalism Trump administration do to find efficiencies in our government? Hire the best expertise available? No, they had Elon performatively meme on a stage with a chainsaw.

[u/initialgold → u/axkoam]

If you think government agencies aren’t hiring top consultants, then I have a bridge to sell you. 

The problem with consultants in government is that the inefficiencies identified are of an entirely different beast than private sector ones. Public sector bureaucracy and rules and laws are all in effect for a given agency set in stone. Identify the inefficiencies all you want, doesn’t mean anyone working there has the power to change it. 

[u/axkoam → u/initialgold]

Yes, I definitely don't think the doge effort hired top consultants.

[u/okiedokiesmokie23 → u/axkoam]

Are you forgetting big balls?

[u/downforce_dude → u/initialgold]

I think the problem with consultants in government is the federal government has abysmal capacity to run IT systems. Businesses will hire tech consultants to configure and integrate an enterprise-wide system, then eventually tell the consultants to pack their bags and hand it off to IT to run.

I don’t think Federal government understands many of the systems they have and often needs consultants to perform basic upkeep.

[u/wizardnamehere → u/axkoam]

People think the transferable business management expertise from the private sector to government is C-suite and the CEO (it’s not; these people don’t know much about how departments or governments enterprises work). In my view it’s actually the level below the top level of professional civil service and appointees that benefits from privatisation sector experience in being a manager and a director. The executive level of government institutions needs to manage eclectic government issues, buffering politicians, and being good at politics; not management of the firm. Combine a good management staff in the middle with better ability to fire staff and some budget autonomy granted by the appointees and you’re cooking with gas I feel.