Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to get a check

Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout and tech billionaire creator of Facebook, called for looking at "Universal Basic Income," in his Harvard commencement speech a few days ago.  Here's a guy who made an incredible fortune in his 20's by writing a program initially designed to meet hot girls at Harvard.  He's really, really smart.  He had a great idea, and worked hard with many other people, for several years, to make it happen.  Yet, he has the audacity to say that luck played an important part in his success.  That's pretty freakin' amazing.

So what is "Universal Basic Income?"  It's the idea that every single person in the country should get a basic income from the government.  Yeah, a multi-billionaire is saying you deserve a check just for being a human being.

Why is he supporting looking into this idea?   Because a small group of people, mostly really smart people, look to the future we're heading towards.  One of the big issues they see, and the issue that sparked this blog for me, is that machines and software are quickly replacing human jobs.  Nobody who looks into the issue seriously, is sure how we will out the whole population to work in the next 10-20-30 years.  There just aren't going to be enough jobs, pure and simple.

At the same time, small groups of people, like Mark's initial crew at Facebook, are able to create tens of billions of dollars of value with their company in a few short years. They realize that they can't spend all that money on golf courses, call girls, yachts, gold plated urinals, and stuff like that.  These people are looking to put a chunk of that wealth back into the system to being millions out of poverty and level the playing field in the economic world.  Obviously, the people who have rigged that playing field in their favor for generations aren't stoked on this idea. 

Personally, I'm not sold on Universal Basic Income, and I've spent years homeless while working full time, and way beyond full time.  My first thought is turning us into a nation full of people sitting on the couch, getting stoned, and playing video games all day.  But around here, so many people scam to get a Social Security disability check (who don't truly deserve it), that it's be cool if the hard working and motivated people also got a check.  A lot of people would do a lot of really cool things if they could get beyond financial instability.

Personally, my focus these days is to help people build and grow the small creative scenes that give people an outlet for their energy and creativity.  Those scenes often turn into new businesses and new jobs, and sometimes entire new industries.  But I am really glad a group of really smart, really wealthy, forward looking people are thinking about this concept.  What do you think?