The government is not the only bureaucratic entity hung up on detailed forms that must be completed perfectly. My wife has been hunting for work as a research technologist or a medical technologist. Almost every company and hospital uses online applications. The applications are absurdly long, overcomplicated, and require completion of all fields. My wife hasn’t worked in twenty years. What’s she supposed to do when asked to list all professional employment for the past ten years? Or when she’s asked to provide the names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of the supervisors of her past three jobs when only one of those persons can be found? Her applications often get filed as incomplete, so she can’t get an interview. Phone calls to personnel (almost always renamed Human Resources) never get answered, and no one returns calls after leaving a voice message. HR staff could show the feds how to become a horrific bureaucracy.

Then could someone tell me how the Cash for Clunkers program was out of money and need another billion dollars? Where did all the money go?