I briefly worked for the Federal Government, and I recall an immense amount of paperwork being generated by the regulations of the "Paperwork Reduction Act."
I'm federally funded, and have been for the better part of my career. The paperwork reduction act has nothing to do with physically reducing paperwork, and more in reducing the work burden to the public.
It states that every form has to have a justification tied to your guiding principle, and that the public should know how difficult the form will be to fill out. In other words, if the OMB says that form 1014a(1) should only take 15 minutes to complete, it's up to your office to ensure that is the case, if you created that form. As far as physical paperwork - it only adds a couple of lines to document headers, and in the case of enormous institutions, it's listed on their main website or main document to avoid adding it to the rest of the documents.
The paperwork reduction act is usually the brunt of office jokes when it pops up on paperwork, because most people have no idea what it is and it sounds funny, and because it may add a line or two. I'm guessing you've seen that disclaimer and went from there.
I don't know why you need to turn this into a personal attack, but you are dead wrong in everything you assert about my beliefs and experience.
By paperwork, I meant the work burden... and we spent a lot of time getting approvals for small scale data collection efforts.
Maybe you have gone through the process. But I have, and it was a headache.
Your comment stated that the paperwork reduction act added paperwork, which you used as an example to the statement "potentially yielding the exact opposite [of] what it intends."
The intention of the federal paperwork reduction act isn't to reduce the physical amount of paperwork to you. It is to ensure that all paperwork has a purpose, and a timeframe for completion that isn't overly burdensome.
Therefore, your premise that its main goal was to reduce the physical number of pages for federal programs is incorrect, I assumed you were ignorant of what the federal paperwork reduction act was, and I explained it.
I have gone through the process of having federal forms cleared with the OMB at the federal level, large scale and small scale data collection, and have worked with them in several capacities. I don't like that I have to have everything relate to my goals and purpose or that I have to conduct studies on the front end for forms, but I see the purpose for it.
That isn't my premise. I mean 'paperwork' in the 'burden' sense, not as in physical pieces of paper. However, the extra layer of bureaucracy added paperwork in the 'burden' sense.