Universal Basic Income Candidate Could Emerge From Crowded 2020 Field

Andrew Yang was an entrepreneur and is now running for the President of the USA for 2020 on the issues of Universal Basic Income. medicare for all and human-centered capitalism. He was CEO of a test prep company that reached $18 million in annual revenue and was then sold to Kaplan.

Andrew was interviewed by Joe Rogan, Sam Harris and on the Freakonomics radio show.

Andrew has put forward the most best collection of political and financial arguments for the introduction of a basic income.

One of the main issue that is not addressed is that any new entitlement program grows after it is introduced. The plan is seems like it could be feasible in the current political environment. It also seems possible that Andrew could perform well in debates and could get enough traction to perform well in a crowded Democratic field. Andrew might be able to draw away Bernie Sanders support.

His first priority will be to implement Universal Basic Income for every American adult between the ages of 18 and 64: $1,000 a month, no strings attached, paid for by a new tax on the companies benefiting most from automation.

Yang is the first Asian American man to run for President of the United States as a Democrat.

Andrew’s case is that we will top up existing programs to the $1000 per month minimum. If you already have food stamps and other programs for $700 per month, then his program would provide $300 per month extra.

His cost estimate is $1.8 trillion per year.

Additional consumer spending would return $500-600 billion in tax receipts. Putting money into the hands of American consumers would grow the economy. The Roosevelt Institute projected that the economy would grow by approximately $2.5 trillion and create 4.6 million new jobs. This would generate approximately $500 – 600 billion in new revenue from economic growth and activity.

There is an estimated reduction of $100-200 billion in a reduction in crime, jails and reduced homelessness.

He thinks there will be another $200 billion in economic returns.

He also believes the US would need to adopt a Value Added Tax which is a consumption tax. This tax at about half the average rate in Europe would ensure that companies like Google and Apple would not continue to avoid taxation.

Andrew proposes consolidating some welfare programs and implementing a Value-Added Tax (VAT) of 10%. Current welfare and social program beneficiaries would be given a choice between their current benefits or $1,000 cash unconditionally – most would prefer cash with no restriction.

This tax is called the GST (Goods and Services Tax) in Canada. A Value-Added Tax (VAT) is a tax on the production of goods or services a business produces.

A Value-Added Tax is much more efficient way to capture the true value of the American infrastructure and will be increasingly necessary over time as more and more work is done by software, robots and artificial intelligence.

Retraining Has Not Worked

The data shows that retraining programs do not work on a large scale. The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, a Federal program for displaced manufacturing workers, was found to have only 37% of its program members working in the field of work they were retrained for. Michigan’s No Worker Left Behind program found that one-third of its members remained unemployed after the program, similar to the 40% unemployment rate of their peers who did not enroll. About half of all Michigan workers who left the workforce between 2003 and 2013 went on disability and were not retrained for a new job.

Many of the workers who are most at risk for displacement are middle-aged and past their primes. Many have health problems. Retraining will be difficult and many employers will prefer to hire younger employees with lower job requirements.

SOURCES: AndrewYang2020, Youtube, Wikipedia, Joe Rogan, Sam Harris, Freakonomics

Written By Brian Wang. Nextbigfuture.com