It could be argued that many American citizens have lost hope. Some towns are riddled with
unemployment. Violence is rife. Gun crime in some places is out of control. Look at
places like Detroit and Baltimore — some of the highest murder rates in the United
States. Some people have turned to opioids to ease the pain. Places like Huntington in
West Virginia have been ravaged by heroin. 150 out of every 1000 babies born in the state
are already addicted to opioids. Police claim that 90% of their work involves drug-related
offences. In August 2016, they dealt with 28 overdoses in a single day. Huntington only
has a population of 47,000 — and it’s slipping. You can see on this chart the increase
in drug overdoses in the last 20 years in the US, especially over the last five years.
Something has gone wrong in the United States.
With a US presidential election coming up in 2020, it’s only natural that some of
the candidates are trying to fix this mess. Andrew Yang is one of those candidates. From
his Yang2020 campaign website, he states,
“I’m Andrew Yang, and I’m running for President as a Democrat in 2020 because I
fear for the future of our country. New technologies – robots, software, artificial intelligence
– have already destroyed more than 4 million US jobs, and in the next 5-10 years, they
will eliminate millions more. A third of all American workers are at risk of permanent
unemployment. And this time, the jobs will not come back.”
Yang is running on one major idea that he says will level the playing field in America
— universal basic income. That is, giving money to all Americans, no strings attached.
He says,
“As president, my first priority will be to implement Universal Basic Income for every
American adult over the age of 18: $1,000 a month, no strings attached, paid for by
a new tax on the companies benefiting most from automation. UBI is just the beginning.
A crisis is underway—we have to work together to stop it, or risk losing the heart of our
country. The stakes have never been higher.”
His words are not just pleasantries. Yang has his own young family and is deeply concerned
about their future. He writes,
“I’m the father of two young boys. I know the country my sons will grow up in is going
to be very different than the one I grew up in, and I want to look back at my life knowing
I did everything in my power to create the kind of future our children deserve—an America
of opportunity, freedom, equality, and abundance.”
So what is a Universal Basic Income?
“Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a form of social security that guarantees a certain
amount of money to every citizen within a given governed population, without having
to pass a test or fulfil a work requirement. Every Universal Basic Income plan can be different
in terms of amount or design. Andrew Yang is running for President as a Democrat in
2020 on the platform of Universal Basic Income. The UBI he is proposing for the United States
is a set of guaranteed payments of $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year, to all U.S.
citizens over the age of 18. Yes, that means you and everyone you know would get another
$1,000/month every month from the U.S. government, no questions asked.”
I know what many of you may be asking — How would America pay for such a scheme?
“It would be easier than you might think. Andrew proposes funding UBI by 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.”
We already have a VAT in Australia — it’s called the GST. Actually, “160 out of 193
countries in the world already have a Value-Added Tax or something similar”, so it’s nothing
new.
Yang proposes that there will be four souces to pay for the proposed UBI. They are,
1. Current spending. We currently spend between $500 and $600 billion a year on welfare programs,
food stamps, disability and the like. This reduces the cost of Universal Basic Income
because people already receiving benefits would have a choice but would be ineligible
to receive the full $1,000 in addition to current benefits.
2. A VAT. Our economy is now incredibly vast at $19 trillion, up $4 trillion in the
last 10 years alone. A VAT at half the European level would generate $800 billion in new revenue.
A VAT will become more and more important as technology improves because you cannot
collect income tax from robots or software.
3. New revenue. 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.
4. We currently spend over one trillion dollars on health care, incarceration, homelessness
services and the like. We would save $100 – 200 billion as people would take better
care of themselves and avoid the emergency room, jail, and the street and would generally
be more functional. Universal Basic Income would pay for itself by helping people avoid our
institutions, which is when our costs shoot up. Some studies have shown that $1 to a
poor parent will result in as much as $7 in cost-savings and economic growth.
And lastly, what are the benefits of a Universal Basic Income?
UBI encourages people to find work. Many current welfare programs take away benefits when recipients
find work, sometimes leaving them financially worse off than before they were employed.
UBI is for all adults, regardless of employment status, so recipients are free to seek additional
income on top of their UBI.
UBI reduces bureaucracy. It’s easier to implement a welfare program without complicated
eligibility requirements.
UBI increases bargaining power for workers because a guaranteed, unconditional income
gives them leverage to say no to exploitative wages and abusive working conditions.
UBI increases entrepreneurship because it provides for basic needs in the early lean
days of a company and acts as a safety net if the business fails.
UBI improves the mental health of recipients because it reduces conditions of scarcity,
poverty, and financial insecurity, major sources of stress for millions of people.
UBI helps people make smarter decisions. Studies have shown that people in straits of economic
insecurity have a reduced cognitive ability equal to 13 IQ points. UBI would provide the
security people need to focus on important things like their families.
UBI improves physical health. With increased economic security, people are less prone to
stresses, disease, and self-destructive behaviour. A UBI experiment in Canada saw hospitalisation
rates go down 8.5%.
UBI increases art production, nonprofit work and caring for loved ones because it provides
a supplementary income for those interested in labour that isn’t supported by the market.
UBI improves labour market efficiency because fewer workers are stuck in jobs that are a
bad fit.
UBI improves relationships by reducing domestic violence, child abuse, financial stresses,
and sources of conflict. It ensures that everyone has an optimistic sense of his or her own
future and has the mobility to get out of abusive relationships.
And there we go, that’s Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign in a nutshell.
Some Australians might be asking, “How does this affect me?”. Well, it doesn’t directly
affect you, but I can guarantee you if America implements a universal basic income, Australia
will soon follow suit. It will be like a domino effect around the world.
Anyway, feel free to check out Andrew’s Yang’s Yang2020 website. I’ve got links
to it below. Most of the information in this video was taken from that website. I’m hoping
Andrew won’t mind as I’m trying to spread his message.
Anyway, thanks for listening.