Americans lose $165 billion a year to what economists are now calling the annoyance economy. That is not $165 billion lost to fraud or theft in the traditional sense. It is $165 billion lost to processes that are deliberately designed to waste your time, obscure true costs, and make it harder to stop paying for things you no longer want. It is lost to hidden fees that appear at checkout after you have already committed to a purchase. It is lost to cancellation processes that require phone calls, hold times, retention specialists, and multiple confirmation steps specifically designed to exhaust you into giving up. It is lost to robocalls that interrupt your day dozens of times a week. It is lost to AI chatbots that simulate helpfulness while solving nothing.

Some of this is the result of outdated systems and clunky regulation. But Stanford economist Neale Mahoney, who co-authored the report that produced the $165 billion figure, is clear about the rest: some of these practices are intentionally designed to take advantage of people. Companies that make cancellations harder see their revenues increase by between 14 and 200 percent. That is not a coincidence. That is a business model built on trapping consumers who are too busy, too tired, or too frustrated to fight back.

Eighty-seven percent of Americans support restrictions on robocalling. Two-thirds of likely voters say they want Congress to make addressing consumer annoyances a priority. These are not niche concerns or partisan issues. They are universal frustrations that cross every income level, every age group, and every political affiliation. The consistent experience of being trapped, deceived, and nickeled and dimed by corporations has become one of the most shared experiences in American life. And it is costing families real money.

The fixes are not complicated. Cancellations should be as easy as sign-ups. One click to subscribe should mean one click to cancel. All-in pricing should be disclosed before purchase, not revealed at checkout after a consumer has already invested time and intention in a transaction. Robocalls from numbers that have been flagged and reported should be blocked at the carrier level, not left to individuals to screen. AI chatbots that cannot solve problems should not be deployed as the primary barrier between a customer and a human being who can.

Congress has had the authority to address these issues for years. Two-thirds of voters want it to act. The annoyance economy is not an inevitable feature of modern life. It is a policy failure. A Stanford economist noted that we put people on the moon fifty years ago and we should be able to figure out spam texts and phone calls. He is right. The question is not whether these problems can be solved. The question is whether Congress has the will to solve them.

Sign this petition to demand Congress pass legislation requiring cancellations to be as simple as sign-ups with no mandatory phone calls or multi-step retention processes, mandate all-in pricing disclosure before purchase across all industries to eliminate hidden fees, and strengthen and enforce anti-robocall legislation with meaningful penalties for carriers and companies that enable spam calls.