NPR Planet Money: Meet 'Project 2029' — and its war on the annoyance economy
- Andrei Cherny
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Imagine no more annoying robocalls. No more spam texts. No more hidden fees. No more jumping through hoops to cancel subscriptions or file an insurance claim.
"I think the lesson from Project 2025," Maisel says, "is just the importance of preparation." He wants a future Democratic president to "have a bookshelf full of really bold, transformational ideas" that are ready to be deployed on their first day in office.
Project 2029 is still in its early stages. They'll be releasing proposals on a rolling basis over the next year or so. Much of what they've previewed so far is what you'd probably expect from Democrats in today's economy: ideas to lower child care costs, make health care and housing more affordable, reduce energy bills, protect kids online.
But the Project 2029 proposal that immediately caught our attention was the one to take on the annoyance economy.
The annoyance economy is a catch-all term referring to a slew of frustrating business practices that waste our time and money. Think hidden fees that appear only at checkout. Jumping through hoops to cancel a subscription. Mind-numbing insurance paperwork to get your health insurer to pay a claim. Waiting on hold for an hour. Robocalls. Spam texts. Feckless AI phone agents who make you miss even the rudest human support agents.
"American companies derive big profits from these painful interactions — and fight to protect them," Maisel and Mahoney write in a new policy brief about the annoyance economy.
In their new proposal, Maisel and Mahoney call for a series of rules and regulations aimed at making our daily interactions with companies less frustrating.
They propose. for example, creating a standardized claims system to make it easier for Americans to file insurance claims online. They also want to end the widespread use of "prior authorization" — when insurance companies require patients to receive company approval before getting certain tests, prescriptions, and procedures. "It should be replaced with independent clinical bodies that have no financial stake in denial decisions and would review only a narrow list of high-abuse services," they write.
Maisel and Mahoney also propose that the government crack down on scam, marketing, and robo- calls; end a loophole that has allowed an onslaught of political fundraising texts; implement "click-to-cancel rules," which make it easy to cancel subscriptions; restore the ability to press zero to talk to a customer agent; and expand rules against junk fees, among other ideas.
