Nice review--thanks, as always! Just to flesh out a couple points (since he was the single politician I paid any attention to, so I heard a number of long interviews he gave): His policy proposal was actually limited to US citizens 18 and over. When asked about it, he gave one of his worst answers I heard him give to any question, which was basically "mumble, mumble, fairness." It was obvious that he thought that every legal permanent resident in America should be eligible, but that his political staff convinced him to say "citizens" for the same reason you cite that changed to "freedom dividend". Personally, "freedom" aside, I think calling it a dividend is not just smart but semantically correct, if you believe we're all shareholders in America (a la popular sovereignty) and therefore should have some reward when America experiences a profit glut as we have for decades now. Second: He was the only candidate I've ever heard say "yes" when asked if he would accept a VP or a cabinet position were he not elected the nominee. The standard line is always supposed to be, "I'm focused on this race." He was very willing to all but admit that he was campaigning for secretary of something (treasury? labor? some new cabinet department?). I really respected that answer, because it was so honest. I also really appreciated the fact he almost always answered the question that was asked of him and did so as completely as he could, which is another non-politician move--no pivoting to the message you want to get out. I think the moment I became a Yang convert was when he cited the stat that more people are currently on disability than are actively looking for jobs (obviously not true anymore! but it will be again soon), then went on to try to say something smart about how to address that. He also wants to vastly reorganize the way we collect taxes, which to me is a game changer. I hope he's around a while. I very much regret not getting a chance to vote for him.So what Yang proposes, basically, is an economic safety net that is automatically and immediately available to every single human being in the United States. At least, I presume so as he never talks about immigration at all.
I still don't think he wanted to be president in 2020. I think he's got a much better grasp of the kabuki than I was giving him credit for. I think he ran for president in order to increase his access to other policy people. I think he's building a coalition for 2028.
I guarantee you there were multiple people on the staff who said, correctly, something along the lines of "dude if you don't limit this to citizens we'll spend the rest of your campaign fighting skirmishes over guest worker programs and we'll never be able to talk about anything else ever again." I don't see how you could really begin to grapple with UBI/SSA4All/whatever until you'd revamped immigration. And I don't think Andrew Yang has many strong opinions about immigration. I think you grab the low-hanging Obamacare. "Dividend" is a painfully wonky word that nobody poor is going to understand. Meanwhile I have a buddy who is doing his level best to stay above water until he can start collecting social security. Sure, it's a "dividend" but it's also "security" in that it can't be fucking taken away. As it is now, we provide "security" to the employment underclass on the threat that they fucking well better never try entering the workforce ever fucking again, which is the dumbest possible strategy. Dividends? Those vary from year to year and you might not get one. "Social Security?" We've got six generations of grandparents who have made that work. In the book, he states that there are more people collecting disability than work in construction.It was obvious that he thought that every legal permanent resident in America should be eligible, but that his political staff convinced him to say "citizens" for the same reason you cite that changed to "freedom dividend".
Personally, "freedom" aside, I think calling it a dividend is not just smart but semantically correct,
I think the moment I became a Yang convert was when he cited the stat that more people are currently on disability than are actively looking for jobs (obviously not true anymore! but it will be again soon), then went on to try to say something smart about how to address that.