[idiotsecant]

A major loss of productivity? I think maybe i've spent an hour at the DMV in the past 10 years. I spend maybe an hour or two each year doing my taxes. I struggle to think of a single other case where my time is consumed with dealing with any kind of bureaucracy. I'm not convinced it's a major problem.

[myroon5]

IRS stated the average American spends 13 hours every year dealing with tax filing:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/claim...

[ericmcer]

You probably fall into that group of people who the government loves, just work your W2 job, autopay taxes without feeling the real loss of the money and don't raise any fuss. If you try to start your own business, hire employees or do contract work you will find it is a total nightmare.

[chillchilla]

For every person who spends 2 hours of their year dealing with US bureaucracy there are loads more that spend untold hours. I myself spent almost two days figuring out my taxes because they're just more complicated. And people dealing with unemployment, health insurance via COBRA/medicaid/medicare, food stamps, registering to vote, applying for various licenses, etc. It's ungodly amounts of time when you add it all up.

I AM convinced it's a major problem. Maybe not for white-collar people on Hacker News who have paid sick leave, random leave times and no expectations of certain hours, and high pay. But for many working class people in the US dealing with bureaucratic nonsense IS a big deal.

[IncRnd]

For each hundred million people, your 1-2 hours pear year is 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 hours per year.

[thfuran]

Okay, but increasing state and federal government staffing levels by a few percent to try to save that time would cost more than 100,000,000 hours per year.

[Avamander]

If you want to speed it up with staff, if. The point of the article is that you don't have to waste nearly as much human time at all, if you have a working electronic identity and goverment services.

[thfuran]

Oh, I thought this was under the comment about understaffing, but I see now that it isn't.

[Xeoncross]

It's great when it works right?

Woe to you people off the golden path.

[idiotsecant]

Isn't that true of every system ever?

[Avamander]

An hour or two each year? That's a lot of wasted time. Especially if you add it all up across the country.

[0xffff2]

0.02% (i.e. 0.0002) of your waking hours wasted doing taxes every year? That really seems like a lot?

[Avamander]

Yes, because I spend 10 minutes a year.

[0xffff2]

So what? I waste far more time every year browsing Hacker News than I ever have dealing with government bureaucracy. The difference between 0.02% and 0% is indistinguishable in reality.

[vondur]

Come to here in SoCAl. It's a few hours to get anything done.