Audio only
The Time Tax
How the Government Wastes Our Time—and How to Fix ItBy Annie LowreyNarrated by Annie LowreyLength10h 29m
About this audiobook
A powerful investigation into American bureaucracy, how it wastes our time and drives inequality, and what we can do to make paperwork work for us
Everyone knows that dealing with government bureaucracy can be a nightmare. Doing your taxes is bad enough, but for those applying for financial aid, housing assistance, unemployment, disability, or Medicaid, it’s worse—and the stakes are infinitely higher. If time is money, the hoops we must jump through to access government services or comply with the law are just one more bill we as citizens are forced to pay.
Journalist Annie Lowrey has termed this the “time tax”: the paperwork, aggravation, and mental effort imposed on citizens to access their rights and benefits. So how did the world’s wealthiest country end up with such a convoluted, punitive, and inept system of public administration? Lowrey traces the pathbreaking history of administrative burdens in the United States from the Civil War to today, revealing how they were historically built as a tool of discrimination. She examines the effect of time taxes on civic life in the US, from how they amplify inequality and entrench poverty to how they reduce trust in the government.
Lowrey not only diagnoses the problem and gives this miserable experience of interacting with our government a name; she also shows that it doesn’t have to be this way. Countries from Estonia to Vietnam have made it a priority to reduce administrative burdens for their citizens, and she argues there’s no reason we can’t do the same. The Time Tax will enrage you, enlighten you, and, most important, provide a point-by-point guide for reclaiming our precious time.
Audiobook details
GenrePolitics and Government, Business and Economics, Psychology
Length10 hrs 29 mins
Narrated byAnnie Lowrey
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 25, 2026
LanguageEnglish
RiggedMollie Hemingway12h 48m4.6 (4.2K)$23 · $0.00
SledgehammerDavid Friedman8h 21m4.7 (589)$26 · $0.00
Citizenship in a Republic (Annotated)Theodore Roosevelt2h 44m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
UnthinkableJamie Raskin15h 8m4.5 (9.3K)$8 · $0.00
My Fourth Time, We DrownedSally Hayden13h 59m4.6 (2.9K)$23 · $0.00
A Revolution of Common SenseScott Jennings9h 29m4.6 (528)$29 · $0.00
Statement From the Dock at the Rivonia TrialNelson Mandela2h 18m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Lessons from the EdgeMarie Yovanovitch17h 11m4.5 (5.9K)$40 · $0.00
To Rescue the American SpiritBret Baier10h 12m4.5 (2.7K)$8 · $0.00
StonewalledSharyl Attkisson15h 19m4.5 (4.3K)$33 · $0.00
The World According to Orwell: 1984 & Animal FarmGeorge Orwell15h 42m4.6 (1.1K)$1 · $0.00
Basic EconomicsThomas Sowell18h 32m4.5 (29.3K)$28 · $0.00
To Rescue the RepublicBret Baier, Catherine Whitney11h 42m4.5 (8.6K)$29 · $0.00
Modern WarriorsPete Hegseth7h 10m4.5 (4.7K)$24 · $0.00
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (Annotated)Marcus Mosiah Garvey4h 42m4.5 (1.7K)$1.99 · $0.00
A Plague Upon Our HouseScott W. Atlas MD10h 37m4.5 (3.4K)$20 · $0.00
One Bright MoonAndrew Kwong12h 21m4.5 (813)$29 · $0.00
CredibleDeborah Tuerkheimer8h 5m4.6 (551)$26 · $0.00
Never Split the DifferenceChris Voss, Tahl Raz8h 7m4.4 (277.7K)$26 · $0.00
The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed.Benjamin Graham17h 48m4.3 (191.5K)$40 · $0.00
The Hard Thing About Hard ThingsBen Horowitz7h 57m4.2 (134.3K)$26 · $0.00
Boundaries for LeadersHenry Cloud7h 36m4.3 (3.6K)$26 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m4.6 (3.3K)$26 · $0.00
Eat It!Jordan Syatt, Michael Vacanti4h 40m4.6 (1.5K)$20 · $0.00
Progress and Poverty, Volumes I and II (Annotated)Henry George19h 21m4.6 (574)$1.99 · $0.00
Not Everything Counts but Everything Matters: The powerful and inspirational new book about leadership and achieving success from the visionary multi-premiership winning Panthers coachIvan Cleary6h 1m4.6 (680)$24 · $0.00
BuildTony Fadell11h 5m4.5 (14.3K)$8 · $0.00
The Joys Of CompoundingGautam Baid17h 34m4.5 (2.5K)$18 · $0.00
Basic EconomicsThomas Sowell18h 32m4.5 (29.3K)$28 · $0.00
Poor Charlie’s AlmanackGrover Gardener, Charles T. Munger13h 9m4.5 (24.7K)$18 · $0.00
The Ambuja StoryNarotam Sekhsaria13h 59m4.5 (830)$33 · $0.00
The Secret Door to SuccessFlorence Scovel Shinn2h 25m4.5 (2.1K)$1.20 · $0.00
This Is Going to HurtAdam Kay5h 47m4.4 (444.7K)$24 · $0.00
Big TrustShadé Zahrai, Fayçal Sekkouah8h 36m4.6 (406)$26 · $0.00
The Intelligent Investor Third EditionBenjamin Graham, Jason Zweig20h4.4 (156.6K)$46 · $0.00
Bottle of LiesKatherine Eban14h 25m4.4 (12K)$33 · $0.00
The Antiracist Business BookTrudi Lebrón6h 10m4.6 (275)$17 · $0.00
The FormulaJoshua Robinson, Jonathan Clegg10h 41m4.4 (6.9K)$29 · $0.00
What to Make of a LifeJim Collins13h 31m4.4 (794)$33 · $0.00
Matters of the HeartJacinta Nampijinpa Price9h 35m4.8 (359)$29 · $0.00
Black AF HistoryMichael Harriot15h 43m4.7 (14.6K)$33 · $0.00
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m4.7 (594)$24 · $0.00
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett2h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m4.6 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m4.6 (3.3K)$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m4.6 (1.2K)$26 · $0.00
Saint Joan (Annotated)George Bernard Shaw6h 20m4.6 (1.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m4.6 (543)$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m4.6 (1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m4.5 (59.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Mis-Education of the NegroCarter Godwin Woodson5h 4m4.5 (29.4K)$1.20 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 22m4.6 (1.5K)$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge5h 59m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
You may also like
The Nature of the Judicial ProcessBenjamin N. Cardozo3h 39m4.1 (365)$20
The Children’s StoryJames Clavell36m4.4 (3.6K)$4
Kingdom of Olives and AshMichael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman16h 5m4.3 (760)$33 · $0.00
City of a Thousand GatesBee Sacks13h 49m3.6 (1.8K)$33 · $0.00
The Souls Of Black FolkW. E. B. Du Bois7h 34m4.3 (50.1K)$2.30
The Island at the End of EverythingKiran Millwood Hargrave5h 55m4.3 (4.7K)$17
CapitalismAyn Rand14h 16m4.0 (5.2K)$25 · $0.00
Coming Out of the IceVictor Herman13h 49m4.6 (1.1K)$25
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 2Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn27h 31m4.6 (6K)$53 · $0.00
Why Men Fight: A method of abolishing the international duelBertrand Russell6h 2m4.1 (503)$2 · $0.00
One Day in the Life of Ivan DenisovichAleksandr Solzhenitsyn5h 6m4.1 (160.7K)$14
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
The Last Dog on EarthAdrian J. Walker13h 1m4.0 (3.9K)$23
The Power and the GloryGraham Greene8h 51m4.1 (55.7K)$23
The House of GovernmentYuri Slezkine45h 5m4.3 (1.6K)$30
Crossing BordersAli Noorani6h 59m4.1 (67)$17
Slavery and the ConstitutionWilliam I. Bowditch6h 17m$1 · $0.00
Crazy Bosses and Sun TzuStanley Bing6h 11m3.8 (13)$24 · $0.00
The Stolen HoursSaraban1h 37m4.9 (16) Only with Ultra
The BathhouseFarnoosh Moshiri3h 52m3.8 (295)$12 · $0.00