How we became so burdened by red tape and unnecessary paperwork, and
why we must do better.
We've all had to fight our way through administrative sludge--filling
out complicated online forms, mailing in paperwork, standing in line at
the motor vehicle registry. This kind of red tape is a nuisance, but, as
Cass Sunstein shows in Sludge, it can also also impair health, reduce
growth, entrench poverty, and exacerbate inequality. Confronted by
sludge, people just give up--and lose a promised outcome: a visa, a job,
a permit, an educational opportunity, necessary medical help. In this
lively and entertaining look at the terribleness of sludge, Sunstein
explains what we can do to reduce it.
Because of sludge, Sunstein, explains, too many people don't receive
benefits to which they are entitled. Sludge even prevents many people
from exercising their constitutional rights--when, for example, barriers
to voting in an election are too high. (A Sludge Reduction Act would be
a Voting Rights Act.) Sunstein takes readers on a tour of the
not-so-wonderful world of sludge, describes justifications for certain
kinds of sludge, and proposes Sludge Audits as a way to measure the
effects of sludge. On balance, Sunstein argues, sludge infringes on
human dignity, making people feel that their time and even their lives
don't matter. We must do better.
