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 Dear
Readers,
With a wind advisory in effect, Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang
himself seemed to be a force of nature, speaking to an audience
which swelled to standing room only in Mayfield, Ohio on February
24, 2019. Propelling himself from virtual unknown to now being
within reach of achieving the support needed to be a contender in
the primary debates of the Democrat Party, Mr. Yang’s message is one
of optimism, realism, reason and unity.
His philosophy of “Humanity First” notes that while markets and
technology exist to serve people, they often have the diametrically
opposite effect. Mr. Yang’s central policy of Universal Basic Income
is founded upon his recognition that weare going through the
greatest technological and economic shift in our history as well as
the prediction that large numbers of Americans will suffer job loss
due to technology without sufficient new job creation to make up for
the losses.
While people have adapted to automation in the past, Mr. Yang makes
a compelling case that this wave of automation is different, which
indeed it is.
When considering the span of human history, it is really not so long
ago that labor saving devices were invented. Previous industrial
revolutions, although attended by many tragedies, eventually brought
forth a moment in time in which the average person could earn a
living, enjoy leisure time and possess luxuries of which even
royalty of past centuries would be astounded. Simply being able to
speak to another person at a great distance via phone is a luxury,
as a king’s fastest horse might travel for days to carry a written
message and response.
Yet humans now seem to have outsmarted themselves as Mr. Yang
stated, “We’ve already automated away millions of manufacturing jobs
and we’re about to do the same thing to workers in retail, truck
driving, call centers, fast food restaurants and on and on
throughout the economy.” It is surely an irony that human
intelligence has created such efficiencies that now the very
livelihoods of a large portion of the population are at stake.
However, Mr. Yang’s realistic observations are not a message of doom
and gloom, but rather through a mindset of abundance, a re-thinking
of how we structure our economy through human centered capitalism to
maximize human well-being and fulfillment.
His message resonated well with his audience as employment in all
sectors of the economy are now being affected. Attending the event,
Debbie Thomas of Westlake, Ohio, who teaches college level math from
algebra to calculus states that she has seen the affect in her
field. She notes that colleges and universities are increasingly
hiring adjunct faculty (the position in which she serves) as these
positions are considered part-time with a lower pay scale and
without the benefit of health insurance. Bob Thomas, her husband, is
impressed with Mr. Yang’s experience of establishing the non-profit
Venture for America which fosters entrepreneurship with a goal of
distributing talent throughout the country, as opposed to seeing it
concentrated in a few locations only. Their daughter, Samantha, for
whom the upcoming presidential election will be the first in which
she is eligible to vote, astutely noted that while some may see
Mr.Yang as less qualified due to his lack of political experience,
even holding other public office cannot truly prepare a person for
the presidency as it is such a singular position.
Another attendee of the event, Dillon Jiang of Richfield, Ohio and
President of Megalight, an energy efficient lighting company, stated
that now is the time to discuss the massive changes which technology
is bringing about. He and Yumin Yin, also in attendance, support Mr.
Yang’s ideas and policies through “Friends of Andrew Yang.”
Cindy Steele of Twinsburg stated that while she considers it yet too
early to definitively decide upon a candidate, she definitely wants
to see Mr. Yang on the debate stage so that his ideas can be heard
and compared with those of the other candidates. She was
particularly impressed with the Policy Primer which Mr. Yang had
available for attendees and stated she found him to be relatable and
that he speaks from the heart.
Cindy Steele certainly brings up a good point; while many people
want more time to decide, they also want to be sure that the ideas
and policies of lesser known candidates can be heard in the public
forum so that they can make up their own minds, as opposed to their
choices being winnowed due to large donors.
Dear readers, I share this opinion and was pleased to learn that as
Mr. Yang needs 65,000 individual donors by May 15, 2019 to qualify
to be on the debate stage, an individual only needs to donate $1.00
(one dollar) to his campaign to help him reach his goal. This to me,
seemed a very small price to pay to ensure that his worthy voice may
be heard and people can then draw their own conclusions. In fact,
the one-dollar donation represents not only the ability to hear Mr.
Yang’s ideas in a large public forum, it also represents the ability
of individuals to make their own voices heard for the minimal sum of
one dollar. I made the $1.00 donation and if hearing Mr. Yang’s
ideas on the national debate stage appeals to you as well, you may
visit his website at https://www.yang2020.com/ |
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