The scourge of the “time tax”

Explain It to Me

Vox Media Podcast Network

Education, News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.4 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2022

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

(Originally aired May 2022) Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind are joined by Annie Lowrey (@annielowrey), a staff writer at the Atlantic, to talk about why it’s so hard for people to get government benefits. Frequently called the “time tax,” the administrative burden of applying for and distributing government benefits leads to thousands of people not getting the aid they qualify for. References: Annie Lowrey on Code America’s efforts to fight the Time Tax Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan's book on administrative burden Why Is It So Hard to Make a Website for the Government? from the New York Times White paper — Program Recertification Costs: Evidence from SNAP A sudden change to SSI eligibility had huge, lasting negative consequences Credits: Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer Libby Nelson, editorial adviser A.M. Hall, editorial director of talk podcasts Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.4	That's onepassword.com slash podcast offer, all lowercase.
0:37.5	Here is a big existential question for every media company today.
0:42.7	Do they fight the AI tech overlords or do they just take their money?
0:47.4	So far, most of them are taking the money.
0:50.1	But a few are fighting.
0:51.6	One of them is Zip Davis.
0:54.1	This is Peter Kafka, the host of channels.
0:56.7	And on this week's episode, I'm talking to Zip Davis, CEO of Vek Shah, who tells me he's
1:01.0	kind of optimistic about the media business and why he's taking on the people behind ChatGBT.
1:06.4	That's this week on channels, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
1:12.1	Hey, it's John Gwlin. I'm off this week, and so is the rest of the team here at The Weeds.
1:17.9	We'll be back in the new year with even more policy deep dives. But for now, we're revisiting
1:24.0	a conversation with Dylan Matthews, Dara Lind, and Atlantic staff writer Annie Lowry about the time tax and why it's so hard to get government benefits.
1:33.4	I'll let Annie explain more.
1:35.8	Enjoy the show.
1:52.2	The time tax is a way of describing administrative burden.
2:01.9	When you need something from the government, so like maybe a SNAP benefit or a federally financed student loan, you tend to have to apply for it.
	...

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