The Time Tax

Annie Lowrey on the Time Tax, Fraud, and Rationing by Paperwork

Conversations with Tyler, 16 September 2026. The author is the guest. The book comes up at 29 sec in.

Tyler Cowen interviews Annie Lowrey about her new book arguing that government programs impose excessive administrative burdens — "time taxes" — on citizens. Topics include tax filing complexity, benefits access, voting obstacles, the 2020 pandemic fraud spike, and whether AI agents could absorb these tasks. Lowrey frames such burdens as a form of rationing that falls hardest on lower-income people, contrasting U.S. practices with peer nations.

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