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Re:"I'm on a War Footing": Terry Tao and the Crisis in Math by spoctrial on Monday October 19, 2026 @05:57AM (#50150416)
This is a very bad example.

The IRS is treating you bureaucratically and poorly because of lobbying from companies and politicians being bribed by said lobbyists.

My point being that you are beholden to a poorly functioning IRS because of capitalism; where companies have lobbied so hard against tax reform and simple filing that it more or less forces you to use their software.

Re:"I'm on a War Footing": Terry Tao and the Crisis in Math by Dig1t on Monday October 19, 2026 @06:52AM (#50150800)
I call the IRS and wait 4 hours on hold waiting to talk to a person. I get disconnected randomly and have to call back the next day only to have to wait another 4 hours. Finally I get in touch with someone and they are extremely rude, unhelpful, and treat me like garbage.

How is this somehow the fault of “capitalism”? Regardless of how the system is structured, the government has a near-infinite budget, they could theoretically staff the agency with enough people to answer my call in a timely manner. They could also train their staff to treat me with human dignity. They don’t do this, and the reason is that they have no incentive to do so. If I am upset by being treated poorly what recourse do I have? Nothing. In fact if I ignore their system long enough, armed goons will show up with guns and arrest me.

There are many examples of government agencies that have this reputation, not only in the USA but the entire world.

“Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome” -Charlie Munger

Re:"I'm on a War Footing": Terry Tao and the Crisis in Math by tapoxi on Monday October 19, 2026 @10:20AM (#50152848)
IRS has been starved of resources following the "starve the beast" playbook.

Also the only reason we have to pay for Turbotax (etc) is due to lobbying. We had IRS Direct File for two years and it was great before being gutted by the current administration.