Okay, so we already covered a lot of Yang's positions on here. I covered some of the more major ones. Specifically, his freedom dividend (UBI plan), his healthcare plan (or lack thereof), and his really based climate plan, but I did want to go back over Yang's 2020 plan and look at what we lost. I won't discuss every policy, but I would like to go through it and react.
To summarize the ones I've covered in the past:
UBI- his UBI plan isn't perfect and has some funding holes but is serviceable. It can be improved into something that's workable fairly easily if we wanted to. I even discussed some ways how in the past.
Healthcare- He said he was for single payer, but then he was for a public option, then it was unclear, and then he went full enlightened centrist and said we need to stop fighting and let's focus on incremental band aid fixes that made Biden look progressive by compasion. While I believe, due to his books, that he legitimately does support medicare for all in spirit, the dude kind of jumps all over the place and spends too much time trying to please people than sticking to his guns on the issue. As we know by now, this is an endemic problem.
Climate plan- Really based plan. Probably aligns best with my own individual political philosophy, as I'm not a green new dealer and just wanna focus on getting results without massive job creation. Some of his solutions sound a little science fictiony (space mirrors), but the dude has a very progressive plan that would probably work well.
That said, I would like to look into other policies of his. Obviously I won't look at them all, but I do want to touch on a few.
Capitalism as an economic system has led to unparalleled innovation and improvement in the human condition. Many consider it to have “won” the war of ideas against socialism, but that simplistic view ignores that there is no such thing as a pure Capitalist system. And our current version of institutional capitalism and corporatism is a relatively recent development.
Our current emphasis on corporate profits isn’t working for the vast majority of Americans. This will only be made worse by the development of automation technology and AI.
We need to move to a new form of capitalism – Human Capitalism – that’s geared towards maximizing human well-being and fulfillment. The central tenets of Human Capitalism are:
- Humans are more important than money
- The unit of a Human Capitalism economy is each person, not each dollar
- Markets exist to serve our common goals and values
The focus of our economy should be to maximize human welfare. Sometimes this aligns with a purely capitalist approach, where different entities compete for the best ideas. But there are plenty of times when a capitalist system leads to suboptimal outcomes. Think of an airline refusing to honor your ticket because they can get more money from a customer who purchases last-minute, or a pharmaceutical company charging extortionate rates for a life-saving drug because the customers are desperate.
Yes, based. As you guys know, I've supported a variation of this for years before the concept, but never called it "human centered capitalism", but just to remind you guys, my whole approach was:
1) the economy is made for man, not man for the economy
2) work is a means to an end, not an end in itself
This whole concept is based heavily on my secular humanist mindset. Remember that? Understanding the Times again. Without a god (since I was an atheist at the time, although my spiritual perspective doesn't conflict with this), all morality is subjective, and all institutions are made by people. And they should serve people. We shouldn't serve them. That seems like weird authoritarianism. We're not slaves. We are stakeholders in this system of ours. Any system that enslaves us is inherently unjust to me. And ultimately, the system should serve people, not the other way around.
And given my anti work mindset, I decided jobs are there to produce things that need to be done, we shouldnt create jobs just so people have people to do. Because work is unpleasant, and if we can reduce it and eliminate it if we can, so we dont have to do it any more. If people disagree with this premise, than I'd compromise. You can work all you want, but dont force me to do so. We live in the 21st century, the economy is many times more productive than it used to be, and we can provide for all human needs with a fraction of the work needed in the past. Most human needs arent needs at all, they're wants. And while I have no problem with people working for wants, well, we shouldn't be slaves to jobs any longer.
Not QUITE what Yang had in mind, but you can see how we kind of operate off of the same secular humanist base. Anyway, for me, human centered capitalism is an ETHOS. It's a philosophy unto itself, not unlike social democracy. But based on a more humanist set of principles rather than the traditional left-right divide. Much like Yang i do agree with the supremacy of capitalism over socialism, although I understand how socialism as an ethos has its place. I could see aspects of socialism being integrated into capitalism, but as you guys can tell I like indepentarianism and the whole being freed from coercion over economic democracy, which still amounts to tyranny by majority. But that's enough rambling. Anyone who is a regular reader knows what I'm about. Let's focus on the policy aspect of what he's about here.
As President I will...
- Change the way we measure the economy, from GDP and the stock market to a more inclusive set of measurements that ensures humans are thriving, not barely making it by. New measurements like Median Income and Standard of Living, Health-adjusted Life Expectancy, Mental Health, Childhood Success Rates, Social and Economic Mobility, Absence of Substance Abuse, and others will give us a much clearer and more powerful sense of how we are doing both individually and as a society.
- Rein in corporate excesses by appointing regulators who are paid a lot of money - competitive with senior jobs in the private sector - but then will be prohibited from going to private industry afterward. Regulators need to be focused on making the right decisions and policies for the public with zero concern for their next position.
- The government should create a modern timebanking system that will reward people and organizations who drive significant social value.
Yeah, I mean, we are enslaved as we are due to GDP. GDP is a measure of our total economic power, and it does correlate to a standard of living to some extent, but I think beyond a certain point, it just becomes less important. It's kind of like the idea of marginal utility in economics. if you're poor, each unit of a resource is good, but as you acquire more, each additional unit produces less additional happiness and well being. While income seems to top off at $75k or so in this way, generally speaking, I dont think GDP is overly important. While the right would argue capitalism is a "tide that lifts all boats", well, it really isn't given the structural issues with the economy and poverty and wage slavery, and honestly, we would probably do a lot better redistributing income more equally, and not tying it to work.
Yang uses "human centered capitalism" specifically to push for replacing GDP as a standard with the "American Scorecard", which looks at other metrics like what is mentioned above. And whenever he would do the state of the union, he would measure his presidency against this scorecard.
It's a nice idea. I mean, I'm not 100% sure how well it would work. GDP is one measurement, and while we shouldnt throw it out completely, I think we should realize all measurements are going to have imperfections in the same way. And honestly I think just overall mental well being might play a role in things too. Even if our society is financially very rich, capitalism is arguably causing a mental health crisis.
As far as time banking, that idea was always silly. Basically he wanted people to do odd jobs and work people didn't want to pay a wage for and issue an alternative currency that they can cash in for rewards. it's like money but...not money. Honestly, compared to UBI, or just having odd jobs, gig work, etc, it was kind of a dumb idea. I never really liked it much. It reminded me of something Jeremy Rifkin would come up with in "The End Of Work", which covered a lot of the same themes of technological unemployment as Yang's "The War on Normal People", but Rifkin really seemed to struggle to get past jobism in his solutions and seemed to offer weird workfare schemes as a result. This feels like one of those.
Still, all in all, do I like this idea? YES. But more as an ethos than an overall policy goal. I feel like Yang is good at making ethoses that I find agreeable like human centered capitalism, and fact based governance, and modern and effective governance, and I really do see him as a quite prolific thinker I'm on a similar wavelength with. I just wish he would tone down the enlightened centrism and throwing all of these great ideas in the garbage to appease people.
Anyway, with that, let's look at some more minor policies of his:
Yeah, ok, let's discuss that time banking proposal in more detail.
Volunteering at a local community center. Mentoring an at-risk youth. Starting a book club. Helping your friend recover from drug addiction. There are many actions that create positive social utility that are currently uncompensated.
Enter Modern Time Banking. Volunteer activity and community engagement would be tracked by an app and seeded, initially, by the government. After that, local administrators would oversee the program.
You could earn time banking points through:
- Volunteering at a local shelter
- Participating in a town fair
- Coaching little league
- Fixing a neighbor’s appliance
- Working with those recovering from opiate addiction
- Tutoring a local student
and a range of other activities that make your community stronger.
We’ve seen the power of these awards systems to drive behavior through online communities, “free sandwich” punch cards, and special status (e.g. Yelp Elite, Foursquare mayors, etc.).
Signing up for an account would allow you to track your running tally, along with an “unspent” total. As noted above, you could offer time banking points to a neighbor for watering your plants or taking your mail in while you’re away. But there could also be specific promotions where you could trade in your points for special experiences, such as tickets to a local ball game or meeting with a government or civic leader.
Yeah, Im gonna be honest, this doesn't go over with me. Even worse, this used to be called "social credit", but that made people think he was gonna bring over china's infamous social credit system so he rebranded it with a less offensive name. but basically it's working for an alternative currency to cash? And then you can cash points in to get stuff? Why not just pay people? Even then, im not really big on workfare and the like. It's just...kinda cringe. It's one of those feel good civic minded things Yang is sometimes for that really doesn't go over with me. I'm not dead opposed to this idea, but I'm not really for it either. I guess he's thinking of ways to employ people post automation with this one.As President I will...
- Create a new time banking app to track points awarded and traded for helping your community and neighbors.
- Empower local communities to define what activities they’d like to promote through the use of time banking points.
- Donate all my points to the top-earning high school students in each state.
- Set time banking points prizes for a visit to the White House and a meeting with me and/or fun civic-minded local celebrities.
Student debt levels have exploded relative to other forms of debt over the past decade in particular. Educational loan totals recently surpassed $1.4 trillion in the U.S., up from $550 billion in 2011 and only $90 billion in 1999. The average level of indebtedness upon graduation is up to $37,172 and there are 44 million student borrowers.
Default rates have crept up steadily to 11.2%, and if you include delinquency rates it’s as high as 25%. This is limiting the growth of our economy and also crippling the advancement of millions of young people in their careers and in starting families. We need to create a clear path out of this crippling debt.
As President I will...
- Immediately reduce the student loan payments for millions of Americans by ensuring that the American government does not profit one cent from its educational loan servicing and that students get the same interest rates as the wealthiest bank. Any profit that the government does realize will go into reducing rates the following year until profit is zero.
- Explore a blanket partial reduction in the principal of school loans, especially for recent graduates with the largest debt levels—the “Bailout for the People”—and forgiveness for debt beyond a certain period after graduation.
- Propose the 10x10 Student Loan Emancipation Act, a plan by which the federal government would buy student loan debt (negotiated rate with the private lenders) and allow students to opt into a plan to repay it through pledging 10% of their salary per year for ten years, after which the balance would be forgiven.
- Ask schools to forgive in part or in whole the debts of those who do not graduate.
- Initiate a program that allows graduates to pay a percent of income instead of a fixed amount.
- Establish a commission that will explore debt forgiveness or reduction for students who sought degrees under false pretenses.
- Change bankruptcy laws to make it easier to discharge educational debt.
- Expand a program that forgives the debt of graduates who work in rural areas or with underprivileged populations.
- Close schools with high loan default rates and consistently low employment placement success.
- Police and prosecute all marketing representations of schools that might induce enrollment under false pretenses.
- Allow student loan debt to be discharged through bankruptcy, thus forcing lenders to work with students in good faith to find workable repayment plans.
That sounds potentially economically devastating, and while I do believe ensuring everyone can get IBR is a compromise I'm willing to take, I think the important thing here is getting rid of the tax bomb. Idk if yang would, but that's the big change to IBR i would recommend making.
A Value-Added Tax (VAT) is currently used by 160 out of 193 countries, including every developed nation except the US, because it is a more efficient way of generating revenue with no loopholes. Big companies and rich people are excellent at moving assets around to avoid taxes – Amazon, Google, and other companies funnel hundreds of billions in earnings overseas. In fact, Amazon paid zero in taxes last year. A VAT makes it impossible for them to benefit from the American people, automation, and infrastructure without paying their fair share.
By implementing a VAT, the American people will get a tiny sliver from the transactions of the big winners from the 21st century economy, the trillion dollar tech companies.
These revenues will help finance the Freedom Dividend and provide a floor for millions of Americans to build on, incentivizing businesses to control costs, encouraging savings, and simplifying administration. While transactions through the supply chain are taxed, only a fraction of that tax is passed on to consumers. Coupled with the Freedom Dividend, it will be quite progressive.
Why are VATs so popular in the rest of the world, especially among industrialized nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)? They’re difficult to dodge and easy to implement. By taking a slice at each point that value switches hands in the supply chain, big corporations will pay into the system to bring their products to market. If you want to do business in America, you have to pay into America. That’s it. This system doesn’t privilege foreign goods because a VAT is equally applied to imported goods.
This is how we ensure big tech companies pay their fair share and Americans share in the gains of the 21st century economy. Other industrialized countries have cracked the code after trying numerous schemes, from a wealth tax to a VAT. And while I agree with a wealth tax in spirit, there is a reason why it has been repealed by almost all European countries who have attempted them. We should not be looking to other countries’ mistakes. Instead, we should look at the tax system in 160 countries like Germany and France that set up future generations for success, which is a value-added tax.
- Implement a Value-Added Tax at 10%, half the European level. Over time, the VAT will become more and more important to capture the value generated by automation in a way that income taxes would not.
- This VAT would vary based on the good to which it's applied, with staples having a lower rate or being excluded, and luxury goods having a higher rate.
- Use the VAT revenue to pay for the Freedom Dividend of $1,000/month per adult, Universal Basic Income.
As President I will...
- Work with Congress to codify Roe v. Wade into law.
- Appoint judges who support a woman’s right to choose.
- Ensure comprehensive contraceptive care is covered under all health insurance plans.
- Repeal the Hyde Amendment.
- Fully support and increase funding to Planned Parenthood.
- Repeal the Title X Gag Rule and the Global Gag Rule.
Unfortunately, despite the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that protects a woman’s right to choose, abortion laws look different from state to state. Without a federal law that confirms Roe v. Wade, which anchors a woman’s right to an abortion on the fundamental right to privacy, states have extensive power to limit or expand access to abortion.
Yeah, he wanted to protect Roe v Wade before it was repealed. Based Yang.
For many Americans, guns are a big part of their culture and identity. That must be respected. However, guns are a major responsibility and thus we need to have common-sense gun safety measures, especially considering that there are already approaching 400 million firearms in the United States. Responsible gun owners should continue to enjoy the right to bear arms, subject to licensing and education requirements that will enhance public safety. But we need to ban the most dangerous weapons that make mass shootings as deadly as they have become, and address the other violence - particularly suicide - that is plaguing this country.
We also have to address all instances and causes of gun violence in this country. Physical confrontations and domestic violence are more likely to be deadly when a firearm is involved. Suicide rates involving guns are far too high: over 20,000 Americans each year. Mass shootings in the United States have reached epidemic proportions.
As President I will...
- Close the gun show and Charleston loopholes, requiring all gun sales and most transfers to have a background check run and completed.
- Implement a purchase limit (rate, not total) on all firearms.
- Implement a federal cooling-off period to decrease the incidence of suicide and impulsive crime.
- Promote a stringent licensing system, with a 5-year renewal requirement, for gun ownership.
- Anyone desiring a license would need to:
- Go through a federal background check.
- Anyone with a history of violence, domestic abuse, or violent mental illness would not be allowed to hold a license.
- Interview with a federal agent, who has limited discretion on granting the license.
- Pass a basic hunting or firearm safety class.
- Provide a receipt for an appropriately-sized gun locker, or trigger locks (tax deductible).
- Individual states will determine their concealed carry/open carry laws, and reciprocity will not be federally enforced.
- Create a clear definition of “assault weapon”, and prevent their manufacture and sale.
- Prohibit the manufacture and sale of bump stocks, suppressors, incendiary/exploding ammunition, and grenade launcher attachments, and other accessories that alter functionality in a way that increases their firing rate or impact.
- Automatically confiscate any weapon that has been modified in a way as to increase its ammunition capacity, firing rate, or impact.
- Create an agency tasked with monitoring gun manufacturing developments and addressing “design-arounds” as they arise.
- Renew a ban on Large Capacity Ammo Feeding Devices (LCAFDs) and after-market non-standard large capacity magazines.
- Pass a federal gun transportation law that will require people to transport guns unloaded and locked in a storage safe.
- Increase liability for individuals who sell guns illegally that are used to commit a crime.
- Form a commission to study the development of 3D printing technology to see ways we can minimize the risk of this technology in perpetuating gun violence.
- Maintain current restrictions on and definitions of automatic weaponry.
- Stridently enforce importation restrictions on weapons and accessories.
- Create federal safety guidelines for gun manufacture and distribution, similar to federal car safety requirements, with strict penalties for the violation of these guidelines.
- Use tax incentives to encourage gun manufacturers to implement designs that prevent interchanging parts that alter the functionality of the firearm.
- Repeal laws that shield gun manufacturers from liability.
- Invest in personalized gun technology that makes it difficult or impossible for someone other than a gun's owner to fire it, and ensure that they're for sale on the marketplace.
- Provide a tax credit for the full value of upgrading a gun to use these systems, or work through the buyback program to allow "trades" of non-personalized guns to personalized ones.
- Implement a federal buyback program for anyone who wants to voluntarily give up their firearm.
- As stated here, invest in a more robust mental health infrastructure. This will help to identify and treat people with mental health illnesses that make them prone to suicide.
- Increase funding to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and drastically increase funding to the US Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Prevention efforts.
- Direct the CDC to research gun violence, and reject any budget deal that includes the Dickey Amendment.
- Require all locations where guns are sold to display information on how to receive mental health treatment or reach suicide crisis hotlines.
- Initiate and fund mindfulness programs in schools and correctional facilities, which have been demonstrated to reduce violent behavior.
- Invest heavily in law enforcement training to de-escalate situations involving firearms, and provide funding to programs that involve mental health professionals in de-escalation situations.
I actually prefer Yang's more "enlightened centrist" stance now, since on firearms, I am an enlightened centrist. I'm not super anti gun.
Still, his gun ideas aren't uncommon within the democratic party and I see why he supported such measures. And honestly, I'm not ride or die on guns like a lot of right wingers and the like are. So, whatever. I mean, I almost never mention the issue on this blog. Because that's how little I actually care about it.
Border security along our southern border has many issues that need to be fixed to provide security for Americans and equity in our immigration system.
Many proposals would be expensive and ineffective, while also being ecologically disastrous. The issue has become politicized to the point where there doesn’t seem to be any possible compromise, but our leaders are focusing on single solutions instead of the solutions proposed by groups across the political spectrum.
When searching for solutions, we need to work with border security experts, immigrant advocates, and the Mexican government to provide effective, secure, humane border security.
See Andrew’s policies on a Pathway to Citizenship, and on the DREAM Act, to get a more complete view of how Andrew would tackle the immigration and border security issue.
As President I will...
- Increase funding to secure our landed ports of entry, where most drugs enter the United States.
- Increase funding to our Customs Enforcement teams that are tasked with preventing human trafficking both into and out of the US.
- Invest in technologies such as ground and aerial sensors, and video towers, to allow for efficient and effective means of monitoring stretches of the US/Mexico border that are rarely crossed but still provide means of entering the US.
- Provide body cameras for all agents along the US/Mexico border.
- Invest heavily in protecting and renewing the Rio Grande, which serves as a great natural boundary, and is currently ecologically struggling.
- Provide all resources necessary to allow our asylum court system to function properly, lowering the backlog of cases.
- Work with the Mexican government on all of these initiatives, as well as anti-cartel initiatives, to ensure a positive relationship that allows both countries to serve the needs of their citizens.
Much like guns, I'm very much "enlightened centrist" on this issue. I used to be very conservative when I was young, and moderated over time, but given how much post modernism HASN'T penetrated my perspective, I've never been full leftist on this one.
Again, like guns, not a ride or die issue either way. I really don't care about this issue much at all.
It’s hard for the federal government to build trust with Americans when the most direct interaction they have is something painful: Americans dread the coming of tax season. The specter of needing to figure out the complex rules of the tax code hangs over each of us for the first third of the year, and most of us rush during April to come in under the deadline.
75% of Americans receive refunds. For those Americans, they’ve been (essentially) giving the US Government an interest-free loan through most of the year. They’d be better off having access to that money at the time they earn it. For the other 25% of Americans, needing to find the money to pay their tax balance adds unnecessary stress to their lives.
After taxes are filed, many Americans then spend weeks dreading an audit, hoping that the IRS doesn’t randomly select them. That process itself can add cost to the tax process, as most people don’t have the required expertise to deal with the IRS’s auditors.
Currently, paying taxes is a slog. Let’s make it a celebration.
The IRS has almost all the information they need to calculate your taxes within a fair degree of accuracy. They can do this automatically, guaranteeing that you hold on to more of your money throughout the year and will never need to spend money on expensive tax-preparation services or audit-protection insurance.
With the pain of filing taxes out of the way, we can change that April date to Revenue Day a federal holiday where we celebrate everything the federal government does for American citizens.
Each American should be able to direct 1% of their taxes to a specific project. During Revenue Day, these projects will be highlighted, showing what, exactly, America’s money was able to accomplish during the previous year. Initial profiles of the next year’s projects will also be announced so people can get excited for them.
As President I will...
- Instruct the IRS to implement a system whereby any American can opt into a program to have their taxes filed automatically.
- Instruct the IRS to coordinate with the Treasury to prepare a report on federal spending, and send each taxpayer a rundown of the actual amount of their taxes that went to each major spending area (e.g., domestic programs, foreign aid, military, etc), and allow each taxpayer to select a project for 1% of their taxes to go to.
- Increase the budget of the IRS by 50% to ~$17 billion and modernize it with the latest technology. Money spent on the IRS will almost certainly pay for itself many times over via better tax compliance and less wasted time of citizens.
- Declare Tax Day to be Revenue Day, a federal holiday to celebrate all the projects undertaken or completed by the federal government in the previous year, and announcing new projects.
- Allow each American to direct 1% of their taxes to a specific project, department or activity of government (e.g. Veterans Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, etc.).
I will admit "tax day" as a national holiday is weird, but I guess if those taxes are paying for your UBI I'd be celebrating too. I bet the right would freak out at that specific proposal though.
Anyway, put my 1% back into my UBI. Or healthcare. Or something like that.
While America has undoubtedly made mistakes, we’ve been a positive force in world history, leading to the spread of peace, prosperity, and democracy. Presidents from JFK to Ronald Reagan maintained strong relationships with allies while sending clear and honest messages to those who would work against us.
Over the past several decades, we have engaged in conflicts that have cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives. These misadventures have destabilized parts of the world, made enemies of allies, and resulted in untold human suffering, both for our brave soldiers and civilians of other countries.
While an unfathomable amount of money has been spent on military engagements that have accomplished little, our infrastructure has started to collapse, and our people are living paycheck to paycheck and falling prey to ills like drug abuse. We need to make sure we are strong at home if we are going to successfully project our values abroad.
It’s impossible to be a leader when you have no allies, and so we need to rebuild our relationships with the rest of the world. Leveraging these relationships, we can more effectively deal with international issues. Working with our allies will make us stronger and more able to accomplish our goals over time.
As President I will...
- Work with our allies to rebuild our stature in the world, and strengthen alliances such as NATO.
- Reinvest in diplomacy and bolster funding to the State Department.
- Work with allies to project our combined strength throughout the world, without engaging in activities that will cost American lives and money with no clear benefit to our long-term well-being.
- Sign a repeal to the AUMF, returning the authority to declare war to Congress, and refuse to engage in anything other than emergency military activity without the express consent of Congress.
- Regularly audit the Department of Defense.
- Focus our federal budget on fixing problems at home instead of spending trillions of dollars abroad.
A lot of ink has been spilled over the skills gap - the space between skills those seeking work have and those hiring want. There’s a simple solution to this problem: community colleges.
All community colleges should be funded at a level to make tuition free or nearly-free for anyone, especially those who are taking vocational classes. The government can be involved, but businesses should also be encouraged to invest in their area’s community colleges, both to create stronger ties to their communities and better access to this potential workforce.
As President I will...
- Work to fund community colleges to a point where they can provide free (or drastically reduced) tuition to anyone from the community (especially those taking vocational classes)
- Expand what classes are defined as vocational classes, especially in IT and computer science fields
- Work to create tax incentives for businesses who invest in their local community colleges and provide co-working opportunities
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