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Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, a Big Supporter Of Universal Basic Income, is Running For President (techcrunch.com)
In a recently published podcast, Andrew Yang, tech entrepreneur and founder of Venture for America, said he is vying for the Democratic party nomination to run for President of the United States. From a report: Yang outlines his radical policy agenda, which focuses on Universal Basic Income and includes a "freedom dividend." He talks about the very real and immediate threat of artificial intelligence, how new technologies are erasing millions of jobs before our eyes, and why we need to put humanity first. He also addresses "the big four" and what he plans to do about Amazon.
During the interview, Yang called out governments inability to address large scale problems and the challenges that technology is creating in modern American society. "I believe that we need to start owning these realities [of automation and artificial intelligence taking away jobs] and these challenges as a people, as a country, and as a society, and start being honest. I'm running for president to solve the big problems and to show that these things are not beyond us," Yang says. Yang's own plan to address the increasing power tech companies are wielding in the world involves something called a "freedom dividend", which would paid for by a value-added tax. The revenue from that tax (levied on "gains from the big four") would be redistributed via the "freedom dividend" to citizens, Yang says.
During the interview, Yang called out governments inability to address large scale problems and the challenges that technology is creating in modern American society. "I believe that we need to start owning these realities [of automation and artificial intelligence taking away jobs] and these challenges as a people, as a country, and as a society, and start being honest. I'm running for president to solve the big problems and to show that these things are not beyond us," Yang says. Yang's own plan to address the increasing power tech companies are wielding in the world involves something called a "freedom dividend", which would paid for by a value-added tax. The revenue from that tax (levied on "gains from the big four") would be redistributed via the "freedom dividend" to citizens, Yang says.
At this point in USA history it is really time to make a stand towards eliminating our party system. The easiest way to do that is get a few big players campaigning on independent tickets, or small third parties with the goal of gaining the 5-10 percent for national recognition and then start winning overall elections once the big parties have begun faltering.
Until that happens we will see the same mess repeating that has been for the past 200+ years of American History.
Yeah, it's sad that so many of the founding fathers had the right idea (that political parties were a bad idea), and now we have an institutionalized system that pretty much guarantees an ongoing 2 party system.
I've always liked the idea that one of the houses (probably representatives) be taken over by a Sortocracy (aka lottocracy) , like was in place in Athens and many other Greek city states. Basically, the idea is that representatives are chosen at random from a pool of eligible citizens. Yeah, you get a few crack-pots in that way, but there are many benefits.
1) It is a TRUE representation of the population. It's not a polarized system like you get with voting. Anyone can put their name forwards. The house represents the people.
2) You don't have to be wealthy to rule. You don't have to be rich enough to go for years without working in order to fund a campaign.
3) You don't have to have the backing of a party. You are allowed to have your own ideas and thoughts.
4) You don't have any exposure to lobbyists. Lobbyists are powerless to influence you.
5) Representatives do what they think is right, not what they think will get them elected (goes back to point 1).
It's the best way to get a truly representative body and not the polar ends of the spectrum that you end up with with party elected politics.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
You can have mass immigration or you can have nice things. Notice that the people who are pushing mass immigration, such as Koch bros, already have nice things and benefit more from cheaper labor than better public schools and such. UBI is another example of this. If the US had less immigration, both legal and illegal, as well as no anchor babies then UBI would be much more attainable. Also wages would be better, traffic would be less, and housing would be more affordable. UBI is interesting but unless immigration is *greatly* reduced don't expect it regardless of how much AI and robotics reduce jobs.
Unemployment is never caused by automation
I like trains. I've been watching a lot of documentaries on trains lately. Did you know that before the 1950's over 1/5 of the blue collar labor in the United States was by the railroad. It takes about 125 people to maintain and run a steam locomotive.
You know what happened after 1950? The railroad had a massive layoff. It only takes about 24 people to run a diesel-electric locomotive. So you can say that in the 1950 a shit load of people lost their jobs due to efficiency and automation on trains.
Do you know they are working on a cabbage picking robot? It and others like it will completely eliminate the need for a migrant labor force in the United States.
So, you can't tell me that jobs are not lost to automation. That has actually been the way since the dawn of time as technology gets better. The donkey lost his job at the mill wheel because of the water wheel.
Currently, there maybe plenty of jobs out there. But that isn't the way it will always be. As technology advances robots and automation will take more and more jobs. Retraining is a option for some but it will not always be that way.
An its the very marketing forces that people like to praise for creating current jobs, now, that will make this happen. So unless we are blown back into the stone age, this will happen.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
At one time every able bodied man was supposed to turn out for the defense of the village whenever the feudal lord ordered it. We then evolved into professional volunteer armies and today the concept of the draft has gone away.
Similarly in the future people will work if they want to not because they have been drafted to. Today everyone has to work or starve - there is no real choice.
With an UBI, work becomes a choice and the workers will be much more professional as they would have CHOSEN to work rather than forced to.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Socialism undermines the first by treating everything people do as of equal value and the often times undermines the second by creating a police state where any divination from the 'norm' frowned upon. It also robs people of the sense of purpose often derivative from the religious experience as many socialist governments are passively or even actively anti-religion.
Republicans have been calling me Satanic-Capital S, actual servant of the Master of All Evil-since I picked up my first Dungeons and Dragons book in elementary school. They have also done their level best to suppress my sexuality as a straight male. May a better god than theirs help the homosexuals and the women. This shit is only a fraction of why people become "passively or actively" anti-religion, and you're talking out of both sides of your mouth when you try to frame the "socialists" as the tyrants when they try to stop you from torturing gay people to "conversion" or death. Punishing deviation from the norm is the raison d'etre for modern social conservatism.