The Theory Behind Government’s Cruelest Paperwork

Political Gabfest Broken on Purpose: The Ordeal Mechanism Annie Lowrey explains the decades-old theory behind why some government benefits are designed to be hard to get—and fail the people who need help most. Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Harper Collins. Gabfest Reads is a monthly series from the hosts of Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast. This month, David Plotz talks with journalist Annie Lowrey about her new book The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time—and How to Fix It. In this excerpt, Lowrey explains the “ordeal mechanism theory,” the decades-old idea behind why some government benefits are designed to be difficult to access, and why she argues it ends up failing the people who need help most. This partial transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity. David Plotz: I had never heard of this concept in your book and I was like, ‘That’s an amazing concept.’ Can you just describe what the “ordeal mechanism theory” is? There’s some context in which I guess it could be right. But no, this turns out to be wrong because very often people who are very vulnerable, very low income just can’t make it through the ordeal. They don’t have phones, like up-to-date phones; they don’t have computers; they don’t have Wi-Fi; they don’t have stable addresses. Plus, their lives are really stressful, so it makes it really hard to get through things. But anyway, so that’s the ordeal mechanism theory.” Books