And we know that these big participatory programs that people like,
like Social Security, Medicare, they can increase voting rates.
They increase people's sense of, you know, how the government is working, right?
But these really burdensome programs, they sour people on the government.
And there's actually new research showing that even if you don't have to comply with this, even if you're not a Medicaid
user, welfare user, beneficiary of those initiatives, it actually en masse reduces, you know, political trust.
It's Thursday, September 3rd.
I'm Jane Koston, and this is What a Day.
The midterms are likely to hinge on which party can tackle the skyrocketing cost of living.
Today, I'm speaking with The Atlantic's
Annie Lowry about why it is so damn expensive and complicated to be poor in America.
Annie Lowry, welcome to Waterday.
Thank you for having me.
So let's start off the top.
What is the time tax?
So the time tax is the experience of bureaucracy on the person being bureaucratized.
So we think about like bureaucracies as being like businesses.
Right.
And instead, we're thinking about the consumer, the consumer experience.
And it can be the amount of time you spend on something, the effort.