I used to think making it more automatic was a clearly good idea _until_ I listened to that episode and was introduced to the counter-argument that people should well know what taxes they pay, to make it harder to sneak things in there or make the existing things swell without scrutiny.

This is why there's automatic withholding of income tax from your paycheck. If you never see it, you're less likely to miss it. The whole system is designed to try to keep you from realizing how much you pay.