If you don't think the money is best invested in Alaska and among the residents of Alaska, who do you think should get it--the Federal Government? Should it go the the empire down south like the Sea Otters did when Russia controlled Alaska?
That's the kind of thinking that has been keeping Alaska as a 3rd world nation. Fish resources were controlled by Outside canneries on the west coast. Timber was cut and shipped out instead of turned into products. Few industries have been established in Alaska to provide value-added products. The discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the lease sale of 1969 changed all of that. Before that every Alaskan's first paycheck of the year got $20 taken out of it for a "school tax" that really went into the General Fund.
In fact there are quite a few examples of places in the world where the government owns the oil resources and the people live in squalor. Alaska is a military strategic stronghold for the United States. Our natural resources are providing the possibilities for the United States to have a natural link to the Pacific Rim. This is a very important development that requires some imagination to understand if you live someplace where there is a state income tax...
You know, Alaska has not had the status of 3rd world until recently. It has had the status of 4th world. When GIS was getting started, I contacted all the digital mapping agencies and companies to get a map of Alaska suitable for GIS. Although they had digital maps for every 3rd world country, they didn't have that for Alaska. Alaska was 4th world. Since then, Alaska has brought itself up by the bootstraps to 3rd world status by creating its own digital map, especially in the Dept of Forestry.
I am familiar with the sordid history of Alaska and the general freeze of its resources from the day resources were discovered. There are Outside interests that don't want Alaska to be developed, of which a couple are posting on this thread. Except oil, of course. That resource is so hot they will develop it wherever it is found.