From
The Tax Time by Annie Lowrey in The Atlantic about what she calls " 'time tax'—a levy of paperwork, aggravation, and mental effort imposed
on citizens in exchange for benefits that putatively exist to help them":
... American benefit programs are, as a whole, difficult and sometimes
impossible for everyday citizens to use. Our public policy is crafted
from red tape, entangling millions of people who are struggling to find a
job, failing to feed their kids, sliding into poverty, or managing a
disabling health condition.
The United States government—whether controlled by Democrats, with their
love of too-complicated-by-half, means-tested policy solutions; or
Republicans, with their love of paperwork-as-punishment; or both, with
their collective neglect of the implementation and maintenance of
government programs—has not just given up on making benefits easy to
understand and easy to receive. It has in many cases purposefully made
the system difficult, shifting the burden of public administration onto
individuals and discouraging millions of Americans from seeking aid. The
government rations public services through perplexing, unfair
bureaucratic friction. And when people do not get help designed for
them, well, that is their own fault. ...