Although the title may be misleading, I am not going to get too political or try to persuade you to join the Yang Gang.
As we know, Andrew Yang, the democratic candidate in the running for President, is a big proponent of UBI or Universal Basic Income. A form of social security, Andrew Yang's UBI plan allocates a monthly check for $1000 for every U.S. citizen over the age of 18. Yang calls this the "Freedom Dividend." With the rapid advancement of technology, Yang believes that it is imperative to adapt accordingly. Moreover, that, "by 2015, automation had already destroyed four million manufacturing jobs, and the smartest people in the world now predict that a third of all working Americans will lose their job to automation in the next 12 years." In other words, Yang believes that his Freedom Dividend is the correct first step towards protecting U.S. citizens, as careers, like those similar to truck driving, could easily be automated away. UBI would provide much-needed money to cover the basics for Americans while they transition into another job.
Now, with UBI there are a lot of supporters and just as many detractors. Supporters argue that UBI will be good for the economy because suddenly families will have more money to spend and also reinvest into the economy. Other benefits include encouraging people to do work they are more passionately inclined towards, increasing bargaining power for workers, and improving labor market efficiency. In contrast, adversaries argue that giving cash handouts to every American will incentivize them to not hold jobs, lessening their work ethic. In other words, why won't people just stop working and wait for that nice 1k to come rolling in each month? Additionally, opponents are calling UBI socialism, and that's just not what 'Merica is about.
Ultimately, it comes down to if UBI can feasibly work. Some countries outside the United States have implemented some version of UBI with inconclusive results. However, due to different cultures and the scale UBI was instituted at, we can only know if it will work in the U.S. if we implement it in the U.S. In conclusion, there are supporters on both sides, but if Zuck and Elon both have expressed some sort of support for such an idea, it must then be in our future!
While I understand the reasoning behind Yang's UBI, I feel like improving public sectors like education and medicine would be a better use of the couple hundred billion used in Yang's plan. Although people would have more freedom to spend money on unconventional aspects of life like art under UBI, supporting the necessities of life through improving public sectors would ultimately lead to a better quality of life for everybody than allowing some people to waste their 1k.
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