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| ALEX EDELMAN US tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, has gone from virtual unknown to one of the 10 Democratic hopefuls who made the stage for the party's third presidential debate, set for September 12, 2019 |
Tech
entrepreneur Andrew Yang may not become the next US president, but the
clear-headed futurist has mounted a surprisingly vigorous White House bid
centered around his plan for universal basic income.
For the
past year, the son of Taiwanese immigrants has crisscrossed early voting states
like Iowa, calmly but convincingly telling whoever will listen that the
automating away of some four million jobs in America's heartland helped elect
President Donald Trump.
Yang's
message is part dark warning -- the rise of the machines is real -- and part
clarion call for solutions to cushion the blow in an era of massive
transformational change.
His
campaign has gone from a long slog convincing skeptical voters about his pledge
to provide every American adult with $1,000 a month, to a solid run for the
Democratic nomination that few saw coming, and which puts him in the next
nationally televised debate with nine other Democrats.
Yang, 44,
has seen his crowds, once numbering a few dozen people or fewer, nudge into the
hundreds, sometimes 1,000-plus, and readily sits for interviews with
conservative commentators, leading to broad cross-party exposure.
While he
has described himself as the opposite of Trump -- "an Asian guy who likes
math" -- he is eager to woo Trump supporters, especially working-class
white men anxious about their diminishing socioeconomic status.
Come
September 12, Yang will be the only non-politician on the debate stage,
standing alongside political giants like former vice president Joe Biden and
Senator Bernie Sanders.
People have
taken notice, including SpaceX and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk.
"I
support Yang," Musk tweeted August 10, a succinct seeming presidential
endorsement from a highly visible global entrepreneur.
Yang, whose
go-to outfit is a sport coat, dress shirt and no tie, has never held elected
office. He is relaxed and direct, a skilled explainer beholden to no political
camp.
One year
ago he was a political nobody. By February he was the novelty candidate. Today
he is outpolling three sitting US senators, a current and former congressman,
and the mayor of New York.
"People
started catching on to the fact that I was proposing solutions, not sound
bites, and that we can actually start solving the problems on the ground,"
Yang told AFP in Iowa at a Democratic dinner.
"I'm
identifying things that politicians only occasionally pay lip service to,"
like rising rates of suicide and depression, and declining US life expectancy.
His
campaign raised more than $1 million from small donors in nine days following
the second debate July 31.
Yang gang
The
unlikely nature of Yang's candidacy -- "Random Man Runs for
President," read one magazine cover -- has only elevated his stature.
"Once
they hear about him... they love him," said Tom Krumins, a 25-year-old in
South Carolina who once worked for Venture For America, the Yang-founded
non-profit training thousands of young professionals to work for US start-ups.
"As
that support continues to grow and as he continues to build his visibility
online and in-person presence, he's going to take it by storm."
Yang has
released several dozen policy prescriptions, including an ambitious $5 trillion
outline to battle climate change.
But his signature
plan provides every American 18 and over with a $1,000 monthly "freedom
dividend," no strings attached, to counter automation pressures which he
says could cause one third of all Americans to lose their jobs in the next 12
years.
Republicans
blast the proposal as socialism. But Yang notes that a version of universal
basic income has long been in place in conservative-leaning Alaska, where
residents get government checks, funded by state oil revenues.
He says his
dividend could be funded through consolidating certain welfare programs,
implementing a value-added tax, and hiking taxes on top earners.
Not
everyone is sold, including the liberal Sanders, who said he prefers a federal
jobs guarantee.
"I
think most people want to work," Sanders told Hill TV this week.
"Part of our humanity is when we are productive members of our
society."
Other party
rivals have ignored Yang, even as he presented sharp answers in the second
debate, when he warned that "wall-to-wall robots," not undocumented
workers, were stealing away US jobs.
"Immigrants
are being scapegoated for issues they have nothing to do with in our
economy," he said.
But he
raised eyebrows when he bleakly pronounced: "We are 10 years too
late" to confront climate change.
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