Annoyances cost Americans $165 billion every year

Sorting through scam messages. Waiting on hold with your insurance provider. Annoyances like these drain our time and even our bank accounts.

In a new report published by Groundwork Collaborative, economists took a stab at calculating just how much consumers pay in time, fees, and irritation to navigate the economy.

“So I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Neal Mahoney, a professor of economics at Stanford University and the co-author of a new report on the annoyance economy. “But what we tried to do in the piece is taught up how much time and money we are spending on health insurance paperwork, dealing with spam calls and text messages, waiting on hold for customer service … and we got to was $165 billion.”

Mahoney spoke with “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal about this report.