What this is

What running this system actually consumes beyond the budget line: staff and volunteer time, political capital, opportunity cost, and what people must give up for participation to work, read across levels from the individual to the societal.

Why it matters

The true cost is mostly unpaid and unevenly borne. When the heaviest cost lands on the people who can least afford it, a process built for equity can quietly produce the opposite, so reading cost past the dollar figure is where that shows.