I know they don’t subsidize standard development. But there is still cost for running an organization to manage and coordinate (and maybe translate) what is being standardized over hundreds of topics. Of the 40 million in total income, selling standard documents is 1/4 to 1/3 of their income. You don’t pay for the cost of electronic copies, but for running the organization.

source: https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/P...

That’s a tiny amount. The major nations should each pull a budget line item and support it directly and remove costs of accessing the iso standards. That could go under NIST in the US. (Maybe start a service charging for for cryptographically signed standards doc).

Where's the money going? ISO staff? Who do what?

ISO holds meetings where member delegates improve the drafts and negotiate the standards to be.

Are some people arguing that doesn't need to happen, or can be done cheaper? Is that argument based on detailed attention to the budget?