So, the article's own reporting seems to undercut its thesis. The governor who ran on an (unsustainably) large UBI-ish check, ran into trouble almost immediate

So, the article's own reporting seems to undercut its thesis. The governor who ran on an (unsustainably) large UBI-ish check, ran into trouble almost immediately and was almost recalled. The check which was actually issues was about 1/4 of what he had promised. Democracy isn't able to prevent any mistakes, but it does offer the possibility of not making the same mistake repeatedly. It looks like Alaska's political system took about 2 years to figure out, and correct from, the lure of unsustainably large UBI-ish checks. That's really quite quick, for a political system.