UBI + direct democracy may be the killer app for some societal ills. Don't underestimate the combination of the two to inspire a degree of social responsibility. The gambit has worked before in--believe it or not--Classical Athens. Around the time of the inception of the world's first democracy (a direct democracy where each citizen had a vote in all civic matters), a new source of collective wealth was discovered in the silver mine at Laurion. At first the Athenian citizenry planned to simply split the proceeds among themselves. But their prescient general Themistocles convinced them to instead build a navy for the common defense of the city state. The 200 ships produced became a bulwark against foreign aggression by the Persian Empire. A great victory was achieved at the decisive naval battle at Salamis in 480 B.C., arguably saving Athens and paving the way for ever-increasing trade, arts development and the writing and ideas that serve as the basis for Western civilization.