Here's the problem with Yang's UBI plank...

[brooklynite]

He frames it as a response to people losing jobs due to automation. The problem is that a UBI would HELP, but it wouldn't be enough to substitute for a salary in the long run, and he doesn't say anything about retraining or developing new job opportunities.

[Sherman A1]

1. The Freedom Dividend is a supplement as described by Andrew Yang

He has clearly indicated that job retraining programs do not really provide results. The UBI he proposes will work to lift all boats from the bottom, increasing demand for local services, goods and alike creating jobs. It will also allow people who are not represented by the current measurements (stay at home spouses, caregivers, etc) to receive some or better pay. In addition it will allow folks to look at such things that they might want to do that have not always been the best paying fields such as social work, the arts and alike. It is all defined at the link below.

THE FREEDOM DIVIDEND, DEFINED

In the next 12 years, 1 out of 3 American workers are at risk of losing their jobs to new technologies—and unlike with previous waves of automation, this time new jobs will not appear quickly enough in large enough numbers to make up for it. To avoid an unprecedented crisis, we’re going to have to find a new solution unlike anything we’ve done before. It all begins with the Freedom Dividend, a universal basic income (UBI) for all American adults, no strings attached – a foundation on which a stable, prosperous, and just society can be built.


WHY UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME?


HOW WE PAY FOR THE FREEDOM DIVIDEND


ISN’T $1,000/MONTH A FORM OF SOCIALISM?

What is the Freedom Dividend?

Why does Andrew Yang want to implement the Freedom Dividend in America?

Who would get the Freedom Dividend in Andrew Yang’s plan?

How would we pay for the Freedom Dividend?

What are the benefits of the Freedom Dividend?

Wouldn’t the Value-Added Tax just get passed on to consumers, “cancelling out” the UBI?

Would it stack with Social Security or Veteran’s Disability benefits?

Is there evidence to support the case for the Freedom Dividend?

I’ve never heard of the Freedom Dividend and Universal Basic Income. Where did it come from? Who supports it?

Why do we need the Freedom Dividend now?

What impact would the Freedom Dividend have on the economy?

Wouldn’t that cause rampant inflation?

Won’t people spend their money on dumb things like drugs and alcohol?

Won’t people stop working?

What about variations in the cost of living? Wouldn’t major cities need much more money than rural areas?

Why would you give the basic income to the rich?

Why can’t we just retrain people who lose their jobs?

I don’t see robots. Isn’t this early?

If the Freedom Dividend is so great, why haven’t we done it already?

Will this lead to mass immigration to the United States?

Isn’t this Communism/Socialism?

Wouldn’t employers just start paying less?

This sounds great! What can I do to make it happen?

https://www.yang2020.com/what-is-freedom-dividend-faq/

[thesquanderer]

2. It can also give people the ability to start their own small businesses,

which they wouldn't have the time or resources to do if they had to work a 40 hour minimum wage job just to get by.

[DemocracyMouse]

3. I like the concept, but your cut/paste is more annoying than helpful

It looks like you didn't take the trouble to write something original. It isn't helping to convince anyone – and the UBI is actually good economic policy.

[Sherman A1]

6. Gosh I'm sorry that I didn't fully have an

Last edited Mon Sep 30, 2019, 01:27 PM - Edit history (1)

Opportunity to summarize the multiple concepts and benefits involved in UBI. I thought that the information provided and a link would allow those interested to understand that the idea is well thought out and will ripple through the economy from the bottom up giving all of us increasing benefits.

And what might I ask is Senator Warren's policy proposal to address the coming wave of automation?

[SKKY]

4. As I understand it, one of the latent benefits of a UBI is that it would "free up" people...

...to explore and develop, which in turn would create new job opportunities. But, I think it was Elon Musk that said that, so what does he know?

[lettucebe]

5. I agree yet I'd rather get that universal health care

with no BS premiums to useless middle-man insurance companies.

An extra $1k a month would be nice, but it's not going to push anyone over the hump with the ever-increasing prices, rents skyrocketing, homeownership no longer a dream, utilities and especially Internet and phones ridiculously expensive yet necessary. These need to be addressed. Simply throwing money at the problem on its own won't help. My two cents

--I'd still take the money though

[Sherman A1]

8. MEDICARE FOR ALL from the Yang Website

Access to quality healthcare is one of the most important factors in overall well being, and yet America is one of the few industrialized nations not to provide healthcare for all of its citizens. Instead, we have a private healthcare system that leaves millions uninsured and bankrupts even some of those who do have health insurance. At the same time, our cost of care is higher than in almost any other industrialized country while providing worse outcomes. The Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction, providing funds to states to innovate while expanding Medicaid substantially. However, it didn’t address the fundamental issues plaguing our healthcare system:

Access to medicine isn’t guaranteed to all citizens
The incentives for healthcare providers don’t align with providing quality, efficient care
This must change.

Through a Medicare for All system, we can ensure that all Americans receive the healthcare they deserve. Not only will this raise the quality of life for all Americans, but, by increasing access to preventive care, it will also bring overall healthcare costs down.

With a shift to a Medicare for All system, costs can also be controlled directly by setting prices provided for medical services. The best approach is highlighted by the top-ranked Cleveland Clinic. There, doctors are paid a flat salary instead of by a price-for-service model. This shift has led to a hospital where costs are visible and under control. Redundant tests are at a minimum, and physician turnover is much lower than at comparable hospitals.

Doctors also report being more involved with their patients. Since they’re salaried, there’s no need to churn through patient after patient. Instead, they can spend the proper amount of time to ensure that each patient receives their undivided attention and empathy.

Outside of a shift to a Medicare for All system, we can look to the Southcentral Foundation for another important shift necessary in the way we treat patients: holistic approaches. At this treatment center for native Alaskans, mental and physical problems are both investigated, and, unsurprisingly, the two are often linked. By referring patients to psychologists during routine physicals, doctors are able to treat, for example, both the symptoms of obesity and the underlying mental health issue that often is related to the issue. The referral also leads people with issues they may otherwise try to bury – sexual abuse, addictions, or domestic violence issues – to bring them up with a doctor so that they can be addressed.

By providing holistic healthcare to all our citizens, we’ll drastically increase the average quality of life, extend life expectancy, and treat issues that often go untreated. We’ll also be able to bring costs under control and outcomes up, as most other industrialized nations have.

Finally, being tied to an employer so that you don’t lose your healthcare prevents economic mobility. It’s important that people feel free to seek out new opportunities, and our current employer-provided healthcare system prevents that.

https://www.yang2020.com/policies/medicare-for-all/

[brush]

7. It's not meant to be anyone's only income. Come on, but with the growing gig economy, every...

little bit helps. Some income is certainly better than no income.

[brooklynite]

10. Understood but Yang doesn't talk about other job options.

[ancianita]

9. Yang's UBI plank shouldn't be a qualifier for his governance. He's got no elected office experience,

so he'd be the tech counterpart to 45, however better his brain.

Yang's UBI would have to be passed by Congress, so even that main plank presents a big gamble for voters on everything else he'd not know about governing, government, domestic (immigration, health care, law enforcement, DHS, SCOTUS, especially), or international policies.

Yang supports the current bad business model of data sucking Silicon Valley -- Facebook and Google -- which has shown itself to contribute to crazy, extremist politics, and which has to be changed.

That change could be enacted by any other Democratic president, and would guarantee that user data is paid TO users, which would bring even the lowest value data user an income at least equal to Yang's income promise.

[DrToast]

11. It's not meant to do that....yet

Which is fine because automation isn’t at the point where we need it. It will be one day. I see this as a plan to begin the conversation.

[Blue_true]

12. Your view is similar to how I view things.

Yang's proposal will start thinking about what is to come. Some here on DU have likened the robotic/AI industrial revolution to past industrial revolutions, I believe that view is way wrong.

As far as jobs are concerned, comparing the robotic/AI industrial revolution to past industrial revolutions is about the same as comparing nuclear warheads to cannons. When both came into existence, each killed more people at once than weapons that were previously used. But only one has the capacity to end all life on the planet. The robotics/AI revolution will decimate jobs like nothing we have seen before, and the people displaced won't find alternative jobs. We will have great masses of unemployed people and only a small group of highly skilled people working. I believe that robotics/AI will eliminate 85-95% of ALL jobs at some point. We need to stop covering our eyes and start seriously discussing how we will deal with that coming jobs debacle.

If anyone want to call me wrong, look at the banking and automotive industries. Both used to employ millions more Americans than they now do. Banking in particular has been decimated, a busy bank branch used to have 12-18 tellers for walkin and automobile banking, now such places have maybe five tellers. Banks used to have 6-7 loan officers, now they have maybe 2. Soon loans will be completely handled online and small business owners will have to go to a regional branch for their transactions, or do them at ATMs that recognize and record cash, checks, change and credit accounts electronically.