12 reasons to vote for Andrew Yang - Medium article by Scott Greg

In the Democratic Primary

Twelve Reasons to Vote for Andrew Yang

In the Democratic Primary

Dec 30, 2019 · 10 min read

Andrew Yang, a Democratic candidate for President, is making waves as the first candidate to formulate his policies based on data and research, instead of ideology.

He is a decent family man and a patriot, not a politician — who wants a better future for his kids.

Yang believes in “human-centered capitalism”. He cannot be easily classified into a traditional category such as liberal, libertarian, conservative, or leftist. In fact, his two slogans are “Not left, not right but forward” and “Humanity first”.

But should you vote for him in the Democratic primaries? Here are 12 reasons why you should:

1. He is the candidate most likely to beat Donald Trump

Study was done using data from Economist polling data

The candidate most likely to defeat Donald Trump will attract the highest number of voters who voted for Trump in 2016. Although Andrew Yang does not like to talk about Trump and would rather focus on issues and solutions, based on polling data Yang is the best choice to beat him in the general election.

In this analysis of weekly polling data from the highly regarded Economist / Yougov polls, an independent data scientist calculated which candidate would most likely beat Trump. Yang is at the top of the list because of his strength with both former Trump voters (12%) and disaffected voters (53%), both higher than any other Democratic candidate.

Here is the article with the polling data.

Data showing Yang being the only candidate beating Trump with independents (from Jan 1st, 2020)

This matches up with anecdotal evidence that I’ve seen. When I ask Republicans if there are any Democrats they would vote for, the most common answer I hear is Andrew Yang. Yes, many Republicans won’t vote for a Democrat, but the ones that would vote for Yang give reasons ranging from Yang caring about the working class and not playing identity politics to not bashing Trump voters. Well known conservatives Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro are fans of Andrew Yang.

2. Innovative Health Care Plan

Universal Basic Health Care lowers costs for everyone, keeps private insurance

When forming his healthcare plan, Yang was careful to examine the policies of dozens of different countries to see what works and what doesn’t. He also is laser focused on fixing the fundamental issues of why our costs are so much higher than other countries

Some aspects of the plan are modeled after the Taiwan health care system, which is rated the number one health care system in the world. Co-pays are low, premiums are income based and are free for the poorest in the country. There is a strong emphasis on reducing drug prices. This plan is offered to everyone, but people can supplement the plans privately. Yang is also the only candidate that has explained in detail how he would lower costs — for example, by using international reference pricing for drugs.

https://www.numbeo.com/health-care/rankings_by_country.jsp

3. Five-pronged climate change plan

Only Yang has put together a five-pronged climate change plan that A) gets us carbon neutral to slow down the rate of climate change, B) ends the influence of lobbyists and oil executives, C) addresses how to deal with climate change refugees, D) has a plan to explore new technologies that reverse the effects of climate change that has already happened, and E) puts us at the center of a new global sustainable energy sector. His entire plan is here.

Yang has also made it a top priority to influence other countries like China and India do their fair share, as the USA is only 15% of global emissions and cannot slow climate change on its own. Since China is actively exporting coal-based power solutions to foreign countries, Yang will have the USA take the lead in offering environmentally friendly alternatives at better prices.

4. The leader in fighting corporate influence in politics

For many voters, reducing the influence of lobbyists and corporations in politics is their number one concern. Yang, with an A+ rating, is rated #1 for democracy reform by equal citizens. Equal Citizens is respected by all and is considered the gold independent standard for rating candidates in this area. View his rating here.

The reason for his A+ rating is his flagship policy, Democracy dollars, which gives every US citizen $100 annually to donate to the political campaigns of their choice. This would total a figure 20 times greater than the amount of money being injected by corporate interests. It would effectively wash out corporate and lobbyist money in politics without having to do the nearly impossible task of overturning Citizens Unitedsupreme court case. This policy is considered groundbreaking, and many other Democratic candidates are adopting some form of it.

Yang and many others firmly believe that without solving the problem of corporate and lobbyist influence, passing laws that benefit the entire country will be exceedingly difficult, hence this will be one of his top priorities.

5. Yang is laser-focused on solving the problems of the working class

He wrote a book on it

When you ask people why they are voting for Yang, many of them say it was after reading his NYTimes best-seller book, “The War on Normal People”. (No, I’m not trying to sell the book). In the book, Yang talks about how automation, software, technology and artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the economy and how it is starting to affect the labor market. He explains exactly why Trump was elected, how some of Trump’s solutions to the problems are misguided, e.g. getting rid of all immigrants, and what the real solutions are. Even many of the other presidential candidates like Warren are reading Yang’s book.

To summarize, Yang uses data to demonstrate it wasn’t immigrants, or just trade policy, but artificial intelligence, software, robotics and automation that displaced ten million manufacturing jobs in the midwest. Yang shows there is a direct correlation between these job losses and the states voting for Trump. Yang shows us how some worker retraining programs are misguided as they have high failure rates — not everyone can or should become a coder. Instead, we need a new social contract. We need to take steps to prepare ourselves for a new type of economy that is rapidly forming, one with very few jobs for “normal” people.

6. More complete set of policies than any other candidate

Policies like owning your own data and ending predatory loaning

With over 160 robust policies on his website, Yang has mapped out what he would do as President in much greater detail than any other candidate. Yang has thought through his plans carefully through to their execution. This level of transparency is unheard of in politics, and many voters list his transparency as one of the reasons they are voting for him.

Data as a property right is an example of an innovative policies that the general public is rallying around. Our most personal data is being collected, sold and abused; Yang is committed to putting a stop to this.

7. Yang’s Universal Basic Income would instantly end poverty

Yang points to studies that show people would not stop working with UBI. And it takes the boot off people’s throats.

One of Yang’s flagship policies, a Universal Basic Income (UBI) of $1,000 a month for all US citizens over 18, would instantly end poverty in this country It would also allow families to spend more time with their kids, and helps people avoid exploitative relationships, and would completely revitalize the economies in small towns. It would improve mental health levels, allow people to start small businesses, and it would allow senior citizens to retire with dignity.

Yang’s UBI plan is endorsed by top economists, and paid for by a tax on the winners of the 21st-century economy, like Google, Amazon and Facebook.

In Alaska, residents get an oil dividend check every year because the Oil industry does so well. Yang’s UBI, which he calls the Freedom Dividend, is basically a tech check for being a shareholder in the richest economy on the planet.

Yang concluded that UBI was essential in this country, because of the rapid devaluation of the labor market. Yang mentions 4 main reasons we need UBI — the rapid rise of software, technology, artificial intelligence replacing jobs which is due to accelerate in the next 5 years, the change to a winner-take-all economy, the fact that 90% of new jobs are low-paying gig or contract jobs, and a study that shows 85% of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck at some point in the year.

Yang often points voters to numerous studies on UBI that shows that people on UBI continue to work at the same rate, except for two groups: women who stay at home to take care of their kids, and teenagers who stayed in school longer. It would also grow the economy by 12%.

Critics wonder if UBI would just push up prices all around, but economists generally agree that would not happen because of price competition, except possibly to some degree in the housing market. Yang has pledged that any passage of UBI would include policies to deal with rising housing prices.

Watch this interview to learn more about Yang and UBI.

8. A Candidate that best understands the true problems of the 21st century

The real problems that we will be facing over the next ten years, and our children, include job loss due to technology, software and automation; a new artificial intelligence arms race with China; increased cybersecurity threats; social media addiction; opiate addiction; income & economic disparity due to a new “winner-take-all” economy.

Yang has the best background and experience to fully understand these threats, and having solid plans to deal with them has been a centerpiece of his campaign. Yang ran a health-care technology startup for 5 years, was the CEO of a test preparation company for 6 years, and ran a non-profit called Venture for America for 9 years that created jobs and create fellowship programs for college graduates throughout the midwest.

Yang is not just planning for the present, but for the future of our country.

9. Yang realizes we can’t chase the almighty dollar forever

American scorecard and Human Center Capitalism is where he believes must go as a society

Yang has identified the race to maximize GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as one of the biggest threats our country faces, as it creates all the wrong incentives in all the decisions corporations make.

Our country and corporations have focused on maximizing GDP at the expense of our physical and mental health, childhood success rates our life expectancy (which has actually been decreasing), our happiness, and our environment. Yang has detailed plans on how to address this, including a new American Scorecard, and has promised to give a powerpoint presentation every year to show how much progress we are making towards our new metrics. The American Scorecard will ensure the country focuses not just on economic output.

Yang will lead our country to focus on not just GDP, but these metrics:

Yang’s vision is called Human-Centered Capitalism, which means we use capitalism to benefit ourselves — humans, and not just corporate entities and their shareholders. It means that we must value humans over money. It is a fundamental shift in how we think about our country and our purpose, one that will significantly improve the future for ourselves and our children.

10. Yang is focused on making the country better for your kids

Kids growing up in this country will be facing a harsh reality. 90% of new jobs will be temp, gig or contract work. The cost of a 4-year college is $140,000. Climate change is changing the planet, active shooter drills are the norm. Why are things going so poorly? Yang is laser-focused on solving these problems and leaving a country to our kids that we can be proud of.

Yang’s solution includes the following:

Focus on the root causes for the rapid increases in the price of education, housing and health care — ballooning administrative costs at universities, NIMBYism gone too far, and backward incentives and an artificial shortage of doctors in health care.
Make health care affordable and take it off the backs of small businesses
Research cutting edge technology to attempt to roll back the effects of climate change
Focus on improving the mental health of kids by improving home life, reducing social media addiction, and eliminating harmful active shooter drills which Yang believes do more harm than good

11. Yang is focused on Women’s issues

Yang has seen a surge of support from women recently as he has made women’s issues a cornerstone of his campaign from the start. In every speech, he talks about how Universal Basic Income allows women to escape abusive relationships, leave harassing bosses, and choose to be a stay at home mother if they so choose. He also gives frequent lectures on reproductive rights and the importance of giving women equal opportunity in the highest echelons of the workplace.

His policies for women’s issues include putting more women in leadership positions, women’s right to choose, paid family leave, working conditions during pregnancy, equal pay and assistance for single parents.

12. Has a solid plan how to tax the corporations paying zero in taxes

Amazon, IBM, Duke Energy and over 90 other major companies have paid zero in taxes the last couple of years. Only Yang has a detailed policy that ensures these companies pay their fair share of taxes, through a value-added-tax on business to business transactions that make up the bulk of these companies’ revenues.

In this new data-driven winner-take all economy, Yang realized that our citizens cannot benefit if companies don’t pay their fair share.

Here’s a newsweek article on how Yang will give Americans a slice of the 21st century economy in a trickle up fashion.