In an interview with WBUR-FM , Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang touched on many facets of his platform, including its central focus: a universal basic income (UBI) of $1,000 per month for every American over the age of 18. Yang wants to pay for this in part with a value-added tax (VAT) to ensure that Americans earn from the technological innovations that companies like Amazon and Google are benefiting from exponentially.
Yang also touched on UBI’s ability to change the way we think of work.
“It would recognize the work that parents and caregivers like my wife do every single day. My wife’s at home with our two boys, one of whom is autistic, and right now that work is valued at zero in our economy. So what it’s going to do is it’s actually going to create millions of new jobs and expand what we think of as work.”
The 44-year-old entrepreneur points to Alaska, which has had a dividend for almost 40 years. The dividend — which he notes was passed by a Republican governor — provides each Alaskan with between $1,000 and $2,000 a year through oil money.
“And what I’m saying is that technology is the oil of the 21st century, and we can do this for all Americans.”
Fellow Democratic presidential nominee Marianne Williamson is also promoting a UBI of $1,000 per month — for Americans 18 to 65 — after previously suggesting that the rise of automation was pushing her to support Yang’s UBI proposal.
Forbes interviewed me recently about the idea of universal basic income. It was published yesterday and appears… https://t.co/vZHgKAEwoU
— Scott Santens (@scottsantens) September 23, 2016
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Yang recently used his appearance on The Hill’s Rising With The Hill’s Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjet — which is available on YouTube — to address the dangers of social media apps and their connection to increased levels of depression and anxiety among teenagers. He also blasted Big Tech for “turning supercomputers into slot machines and dopamine delivery devices for teenagers.”
In his WBUR-FM interview, Yang also touched on this belief and revealed that he would start a new Department of the Attention Economy to ensure that there are counterweights integrated into social media apps to counter the financial incentives — which are tied to engagement and interactivity — these companies face when developing their apps.
Yang also believes that when it comes to social media platforms and their addictiveness, parents are facing an uphill battle. He suggests that while parents are still responsible for their children, they require additional help to ensure that their children are not taken advantage of by social media apps that are designed to be as addictive as possible.
