Newsweek: Tackling the Annoyance Economy Is an Easy Way To Win Voters | Opinion
- Project 2029
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Recently, one of us spent nearly an hour trying to get a promised airline refund. We yelled "refund" into an AI phone system, endured interminable hold music, and were shuttled between a chatbot and a human agent before finally getting the money back. What should have been a one-click task had stolen an evening of our lives.
Over the next two years, Democrats running for president will woo voters with sweeping policy plans—on housing, health care, corruption and more. Those problems are real, and big solutions are desperately needed. But ambitious leaders are missing something hiding in plain sight: all the everyday hassles that steal our time and make life harder than it should be.
We know these pain points well: hours lost waiting on hold or buried in insurance forms; the relentless ping of spam calls and texts; the steady creep of extra fees on everyday transactions; the list goes on and on. We call it the "Annoyance Economy"—and for politicians looking to cut through the noise, it's as close to a slam dunk as there is.
By any measure, the Annoyance Economy is booming. Over the past two decades, the amount of time Americans spend on hold with customer service has increased by 60 percent. A recent study found that workers waste nearly $22 billion in time each year dealing with health insurance. And those surprise fees? What started with airlines and banks has metastasized into nearly every corner of daily life, from buying concert tickets to ordering dinner on DoorDash.
Democrats have spent years debating how to win back voters who feel like government doesn't work for them. Our new policy brief, published as part of Project 2029—a new effort to develop the big ideas for what comes next after President Donald Trump—helps offer a way out.
We start with robocalls and spam texts. Our phones, once reserved for conversations with friends and family, now resemble a second spam folder, dominated by unsolicited pitches from companies, politicians and outright fraudsters. We should close the loopholes that let marketers and political groups flood our inboxes and require consent for incoming calls and texts. We’ve put a man on the moon–surely we can do this!
Then there’s the American health care system, which kicks us when we're down, sapping our time and energy when we're already dealing with a health condition. Policymakers should require insurers to accept forms online—no more printers, stamps and envelopes—and penalize insurance companies that fail to keep their provider directories up to date. We need to overhaul the use of prior authorization–the requirement to obtain insurers’ approval for doctor-recommended drugs, tests and procedures. Patients shouldn’t be stuck yo-yoing back and forth between providers and insurers to obtain routine care.
Customer service is no better. We've all shouted "live agent" into a phone or slammed a laptop shut after battling a useless chatbot. And getting out of a subscription can be worse: SiriusXM famously forced customers through as many as five retention pitches before letting them leave. Policymakers should make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up. And despite the recorder voice’s insistence otherwise, hold time can’t always be busier than usual. Customers should be able to press zero to speak with a live agent, or at least schedule a callback.
Then there are junk fees. The $10 meal that doubles in price at checkout. Extra charges by landlords for processing rent payments or sorting mail. The $10-$15 a day rental car surcharge just to add a second driver—fees that can add more than $100 to a family trip. Policymakers can end this nickel-and-diming by requiring all-in pricing and banning charges that provide no real value.
Americans have had enough. A 2024 YouGov poll tested every policy idea under the sun. The most popular? More restrictions on robocalls. A separate survey found that 77 percent of likely voters, including 72 percent of Republicans, supported bans on hidden fees. What’s more, polling found that two-thirds of Americans want Congress to address these frustrations—and half believe it should be a priority. It doesn't take fancy focus groups to tell us these issues are popular; our elected leaders can chat up five strangers and get a list of targets by lunchtime.
Fortunately, much of this agenda can be accomplished without a gridlocked Congress. A new president can act using existing authorities.
The Annoyance Economy persists because companies profit from it and because politicians have long treated it as a second-tier issue. It doesn't have to be. For enterprising politicians making the case that government can be a force for good in ordinary life, this is a no brainer. It's popular, it's actionable and, frankly, it’s long overdue.
Neale Mahoney is a professor of economics and director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Chad Maisel is executive director of Project 2029.
