The Time Tax - Why is so much American bureaucracy left to average citizens?
By Annie Lowrey
July 27, 2021
(This was originally published in The Atlantic and is posted here solely for educational purposes under the "Fair Use" doctrine. I felt complelled because it is brilliant and insightful, and so broad in its vision - and it's behind a paywall) |
Not long ago, a New York City data analyst who had been laid off shortly after the pandemic hit told me she had filed for unemployment-insurance payments and then spent the next six months calling, emailing, and using social media to try to figure out why the state’s Labor Department would not send her the money she was owed.
A mother in Philadelphia living below the poverty line told me about her struggle to maintain government aid. Disabled herself and caring for a disabled daughter, she had not gotten all of her stimulus checks and, because she does not regularly file taxes or use a computer, needed help from a legal-aid group to make sure she would get the newly expanded child-tax-credit payments.