impossible is nothing

According to the Conference Board, about 40% of households will e-file their tax returns this year. Why isn't it higher? It saves the IRS $millions to have people e-file vs. paper-file. Why is it not 99%? Imagine how many trees we'd save just by not having to print all those forms and booklets and stuff? Imagine how much more efficient the IRS would be if it didn't have to transcribe the millions of manually-filled-out forms? Imagine how much less expensive it would be for the Feds to run the IRS!

Let's look at voting systems for elections. Why is this not fully-electronic today? How is it that India, a country that has a much less advanced infrastructure compared to the United States is able to conduct fully-electronic voting? Imagine how many trees we'd save, imagine how much complexity would be eliminated, imagine how many fewer lawyers we'd need! All of this plus we'd learn the results immediately! When the last polls closed, the results (the final results) would be published, and undisputed.

There are many other examples:

• Why does it take so much paperwork for a Veteran to receive their benefits?
• Why is it so hard for a family to apply for tuition assistance?
• Why is it so hard for someone who can't afford to feed their family to get meal-assistance?
• The list is endless.

Don't you wonder why this country insists on remaining in the dark ages so much? After all, this the nation that became something, the thing in a matter of 15-20 generations! It flaunted rules and traditions, challenged the establishment, was noisy, aggressive and passionate, and got it done!!

But then all of a sudden, laurels were found, and people insisted on resting on them. WTF? Why abandon that passion, energy, the feeling of never being satisfied with good enough?

Simple. We became comfortable. We became complacent. We did this because things were going so well (due to the work our predecessors had done), and we figured it would just remain this way no matter what - it was our birthright. Hah!

We forgot the hard work, sacrifice and passion it took to get here in the first place. And most critically, that if this country could do it, any other that wished to put in the hard work would do this and more.

Now all of a sudden, there's a sense of discomfort, that others have not only caught up, but surpassed.

The sense of entitlement, and resulting bureaucracy has led us astray. The effect of mind-numbing paperwork (while useful in keeping certain people employed and feeling like they had the biggest penises in the room) has resulted in hopeless inefficiency; process that take months or years to accomplish what should happen in minutes; and the reality of bureaucratic inertia arresting productive work, and impeding great outcomes.

Let us start somewhere. Why doesn't the IRS take the lead and say that they will only accept paper returns on an exception basis. That they will require that everyone who has an ATM card or a mobile phone or a TV must file electronically. (They will provide mechanisms that allow for that to happen at post offices, public libraries, other state-run facilities and even hospitals.) In the end, even doing this will save more money than it costs to process all the paper returns.

Why doesn't the FEC state that we will require a voting system like the one I described here??

Why doesn't the Veteran's administration say that we will automatically give every Veteran the benefits they're owed - no paperwork required? And so on?

Is it really that hard? I don't think so. Is it equitable for every citizen? No. So why not create exceptional solutions that specifically cater to those "edge-cases" vs. burden the whole system with it? That's a truly equitable solution.

From what I know of the IRS (I had the opportunity to work with it's then CIO about five years ago), this (even accounting for all the special accommodations I described above) would actually be a net cost savings to them; in conversations with people at the Department of Social Security, I heard similar words when talking about their processes.

Maybe it's time for President Obama to enact Patriot Act Part 2 - the American Redemption from the Tyranny of Paperwork.

Oh, and Mr. President: please just email the Act to Congress, and have them e-vote to pass it.