Zuckerberg says the state's cash handout program "provides some good lessons for the rest of the country." The dividend averages $1000 (or more) per person. "That can be especially meaningful if your family has five or six people," says Zuckerberg in a post he wrote about the payment. "This is a novel approach to basic income in a few ways. First, it's funded by natural resources rather than raising taxes. Second, it comes from conservative principles of smaller government, rather than progressive principles of a larger safety net," says Zuckerberg. "This shows basic income is a bipartisan idea."

Source: Mark Zuckerberg | Facebook

Fundamentally, Zuckerberg says people think and work differently when they have their basic needs met. "Seeing how Alaska put this dividend in place reminded me of a lesson I learned early at Facebook: organizations think profoundly differently when they're profitable than when they're in debt. When you're losing money, your mentality is largely about survival," says Zuckerberg. "But when you're profitable, you're confident about your future and you look for opportunities to invest and grow further. Alaska's economy has historically created this winning mentality, which has led to this basic income. That may be a lesson for the rest of the country as well." This is the second time Zuckerberg, who at 33 years old is worth almost $62 billion according to Forbes, has publicly extolled the virtues of social safety net programs that give free money to citizens regardless of employment status.

"We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like GDP, but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things," says Zuckerberg, while speaking at Harvard, from which he famously dropped out. According to Zuckerberg's remarks at Harvard, having your basic needs met allows and encourages creativity and innovation. If he hadn't been comfortable financially as a kid (his dad was a dentist), he says, then he might not have created Facebook. "I know lots of people who haven't pursued dreams because they didn't have a cushion to fall back on if they failed," says Zuckerberg. "We all know we don't succeed just by having a good idea or working hard. We succeed by being lucky too. If I had to support my family growing up instead of having time to code, if I didn't know I'd be fine if Facebook didn't work out, I wouldn't be standing here today."

Zuckerberg isn't alone in promoting the idea of universal basic income. Tech titan Elon Musk has said it will be a virtual necessity as automation replaces lower skilled jobs. And Sam Altman, the president of Silicon Valley start-up shop Y Combinator, has also supported the idea of giving cash handouts to everyone. "We think everyone should have enough money to meet their basic needs—no matter what, especially if there are enough resources to make it possible," he says. Despite Zuckerberg's thoughts, some have questioned whether Alaska's model is having a positive impact on its residents.