Friday, July 17, 2009

The Joy of Paperwork

The NYT explains all about US government forms.

Tasters:

“Paradoxically, the ability to have the forms electronically has increased the number of forms and made them longer,” Ms. Furchtgott-Roth said, “because if you don’t have to print them, it’s a lot easier to require someone to do it.’’

Actually, it is not much of a paradox at all, it is just a downward sloping demand curve.

“As a Republican, I love it when the Dems run the White House and Congress,’’ said William A. Gindlesperger, a consultant to the commercial printing industry, “because they love to print.”

It's all about the jobs with those dems.

Oh, and I liked this from the comments:

The only government form worth anything is that one that mentions something about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The rest are mostly trying to get in the way of those things.

What *is* that form called? It sounds kind of familiar. I think they have it stored in some sort of special sealed box in DC so that it can't infect anyone.

Addendum: it is interesting that there is not even a sort of informal cost-benefit analysis as part of the paperwork approval process.

Hat tip: Brian Rowe