Candidate Yang & UBI

People make a living in one of two ways: labor or non-labor. The people who are at the top tend to live off non-labor activities, such as capital gains, dividends and other forms of property income, which is taxed at a lower rate than labor income. The rest of the people get their income from labor, which is considers Social Security and pensions as deferred wages and salaries. The top 1 percent’s money is earned from non-labor. This is not to say that the bulk of income should come from non-labor, but everyone should get some non-labor income as a birth right otherwise our middle class—what is left of it—will disappear. It will disappear and with it the capitalist system as we know it today and along with it our democracy. Our government will be turned into something that will not work well for the 90 percent. If we want to change the wealth inequality in this country and distribute the wealth more evenly, we need to change the way our economic system is operated. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang is running for president in 2020. He studied economics and political science at Brown and went to law school at Columbia, before becoming a successful entrepreneur so he knows a thing or two about business, the law, politics, and the economics effects on the people of this country. Yang is a strong proponent for universal basic income (UBI) and promotes it as a form of social security, guaranteeing a certain amount of money, $1,000 a month, to every citizen 18 years and older without having to pass a test or require employment by the recipient. Yang is supporting what many economists and technology experts are saying, “we are experiencing the greatest technological shift the world has ever seen,” and that in the next 12 years, one out of three workers will be at risk of losing their jobs to new technologies, but unlike with previous waves of automation, this time new jobs will not replace these lost jobs. Yang advocates funding the UBI by consolidating some government assistance programs, which the government spends between $500 billion to $600 billion annually, and implementing a value-added tax (V.A.T.) of 10 percent on goods or services a business produces. A V.A.T. at half the European level would generate $800 billion in new revenue.   “It is a fair tax and it makes it much harder for large corporations, who are experts at hiding profits and income, to avoid paying their fair share,” Yang says, adding, “A VAT is nothing new. 160 out of 193 countries in the world already have a Value-Added Tax.” Along with consolidation of benefits and V.A.T., Yang sites the Roosevelt Institute’s findings that putting money into the hands of those who spend it stimulates the economy. The Institute projects the economy would grow by $2.5 trillion and create 4.6 million new jobs, which would generate $500 billion to $600 billion in new revenue from the economic growth and activity. The fourth way is addressing our deplorable healthcare by going with universal healthcare, and incarceration and homelessness situations. Between $100 billion and $200 billion would be saved by giving people a UBI of $1,000 to use for needs not being met now. At this time, 20 percent of the people will always acquire 80 percent of the wealth because that’s how market economics work and it will never change unless it’s made to do so. The rich keep getting richer and more powerful while the poor keep getting poorer. The rich get a louder voice in politics, which results in influencing policies, such as tax cuts for themselves but increase in taxes for the poor, adding to the inequality death spiral. More can be found at Yang’s website: yang2020.com