Mark Zuckerberg joins Silicon Valley bigwigs in calling for government to give everybody free money

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called on the need to consider universal basic income for Americans during his Harvard Commencement Speech.

“When you don’t have the opportunity to take an idea and try and commercialise it – we all lose!!

 How can we encourage people to try and fail and try again – so that we can all benefit? People need a cushion to fall back on if they failed

See the video here http://ift.tt/2r5S8QI;

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME

Zuckerberg’s comments reflect those of other Silicon Valley bigwigs, including Sam Altman, the president of venture capital firm Y Combinator. 

“Every generation expands its definition of equality. Now it’s time for our generation to define a new social contract,” Zuckerberg said during his speech. “We should have a society that measures progress not 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 make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”

Zuckerberg said that, because he knew he had a safety net if projects like Facebook had failed, he was confident enough to continue on without fear of failing. Others, he said, such as children who need to support households instead of poking away on computers learning how to code, don’t have the foundation Zuckerberg had. 

Universal basic income would provide that sort of cushion,