Why Government Makes Us Miserable

Americans don’t trust the government anymore. Annie Lowery, Atlantic staff writer and author of the new book The Time Tax, joins Offline to identify the culprit: a plodding, vindictive, racist bureaucracy that people must navigate to get government services and benefits. The paperwork, lines and emotional strain—just to feed your kids or renew your driver’s license––adds up to a “time tax” that falls most heavily on low-income Americans. Annie and Jon take stock of the Kafka-esque system and discuss why, if Democrats don’t do something to change it, people will continue to tune out the party that wants to build something better.

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