Jacob’s Reviews > The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time―and How to Fix It > Status Update

"The American government is failing to convince citizens that they are valued, supported, wanted, and important. It's failing to offer good policies or even good-enough policies, and failing to communicate about these policies in a clear and engaging fashion."

Hard to reform a system that is content with stagnation.

"Only 2 percent of people believe that Washington will do the right thing 'just about always', and only 15 percent 'most of the time.' People were more satisfied with the government during Jim Crow, the Vietnam War, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Black Monday, the Bush v. Gore decision, the invasion of Iraq, the revelation of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, and Hurricane Katrina."

"Many states do not offer fully accessible voting options to blind and visually impaired Americans."

"Roughly 17 million Americans live in deep poverty, surviving on incomes below half of the federal poverty line. ... Another 20 million sit below the poverty line, and another 20 million live paycheck to paycheck. The ubiquity and persistence of financial strain has not changed the country's perception of poverty and its root causes much in recent decades."

Woof. That's about 6 percent of Americans (that we know of)

"Poverty reduces a person's self-worth, increases the incidences of anxiety and depression, elevates blood pressure, amplifies the sensation of pain, and impairs sleep. It depresses cognitive function to the extent an all-nighter does."

"Many Americans believe that poverty is a chosen state of idleness. People end up in need because they do not work, strive, perform, try."

"Nearly half of Americans agree that 'poor people today have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything'"

As Congress has built out a fragmented state, it has become less capable of managing existing programs."

"Private firms charge the government twice as much as they charge other firms."

Why contractors, then? "Because contracts keep the federal payroll small. Because the costs of outsourcing are not always obvious, whereas the costs of big, ongoing programs are."

"Between 2004 and 2012, the government awarded half of contracts to a single bidder."