So I already discussed the big six, so let's look at what else Yang is proposing here.
American Scorecard
Measure economic prosperity using a wider index that measures human as well as monetary indicators.
This is a huge part of his human centered capitalism and redefining what the economy looks like. He understands GDP and other economic indicators don't tell the whole story and wants to beef them up.
Indicators include:
Poverty rates
Life expectancy
Rates of Business formation
Clean Water
Crime Rates
Overdose deaths
Government Efficiency
Mental Health
Income Growth & Average Incomes
Affordability
Environmental Sustainability
Recidivism
Labor-force participation Rate
Military Readiness
Marriage Rates
Quality of Infrastructure
Rehabilitation Rates
Civic Engagement
Education Rates
These are all good. I mean, we can debate whether all of them are good things, or valued the same way, but this is a good starting point. As I said I think yang is still a little bit on the jobist side, valuing, for example, labor participation, but assuming he also measures variations of mental well being and the like as well, he might understand that a low labor participation economy might be good for mental health. We will have to say. This list isn't intended to be inclusive of all possible indicators, it's just a starting point, but ultimately, I like this.
Term Limits
Support a constitutional amendment that would limit individuals to a maximum of 18 years in each chamber of Congress.
I'm gonna be honest, I've flirted with this myself, and I'm fine with it. 18 years is more than enough time to be somewhat of a careerist, without being stuck in the system for so long you end up like the geriatric democratic party that's been in office since they were my age and are now pushing 80. If you're both a representative and a senator, thats 36 years. Plenty of time in office. And given the salary congresspeople get, 18 years is also enough time to build up a decent nest egg in my opinion. I'm for this. Although I would go further and say there should be a lifetime ban on lobbying afterwards, and perhaps a super basic income or pension under the condition that these guys don't work for any special interests ever again. I think that would ensure these guys do what's good for the people.
Ranked Choice Voting
Adopt ranked-choice voting systems for all elections that better captures the will of the majority of voters.
Another good one, and I'm all for it. I don't think I need to talk about it again. Obviously it would break the two party stalemate, and combining it with more open primaries is a good idea.
Open Primaries
Adopt open primary systems so that more people can participate in selecting the eventual general election candidates and thus have a voice in our country's leadership.
I mean, I'm a little more nuanced on this one, and here's why. I support the idea of open primaries if the binary is between the current closed system and open ones. But at the same time theres the potential issue of people invading a party to bomb their primaries. I think it might be good to be a little more moderate in practice and allow independents to vote in whatever primary they want, but if you're a republican, you should not be able to vote in the democrats' primary and vice versa.
Of course, if RCV was a thing we would have more than 2 parties so maybe this point would be moot anyway.
Independent Redistricting Commissions
Voters should be choosing their representatives rather than representatives choosing their voters.
As someone who has been the victim of gerrymandering in the past, I'm wholly supportive of this.
Seriously, look at the old PA map before the supreme court dumped it and redrew the lines. It's a joke. Need I say more?
Data as a Property Right
Enhance the ability of individuals to keep their privacy intact and their autonomy while using modern devices and the internet.
Even better, why don't we rid rid of most forms of data collection on the internet? Keep in mind, if I put a tracker on someone else's computer, I'm "stalking", but if a big multi billion dollar corporation does it, it's "market research." Funny how that works.
Stop the DC Revolving Door
Limit the ability of elected officials and regulators to move immediately into lucrative positions that give them a motive to fail to properly regulate an industry while in the public service.
Oh, so Yang IS doing the higher salaries and stipend after they leave office thing. Knew that idea came from somewhere. Good on you, Yang.
Citizen's Portal
A Citizen's Portal would enable the government to better serve its people, providing information and services directly to everyone.
Something to consolidate the bureaucracy into one simple website? Nice. Would also solve some major holes in the system. For example if i don't file a tax return, or do and it's low, or I apply for income based repayment on student loans, I should automatically get medicaid, for example.
Department Of Technology
Revive the Office of Technology Assessment and separately create a Department of Technology within the Executive Branch to better equip our elected officials with the expertise needed to regulate emerging technologies.
I mean, I support this to SOME extent, the amount of boomers who don't know how to use an iphone who are governing us is way too high, although to some extent wouldn't simply imposing those term limits we talked about fix that as younger people understand technology better? Also, the government regulating technology is sometimes a good thing but sometimes a bad thing. For example, Yang seems to have this authoritarian "kids spend too much time on their iphones" type attitude sometimes and it kinda rubs me the wrong way. I mean, looking at what china is doing with limiting video game time, yeah no, I wouldnt want the government to tell me what to do as far as technology goes to some extent.
Automatic Tax Filing
Make taxes as simple and streamlined as possible, ensuring that people get their refunds in a timely manner and don't need to spend hours and money to go through the current process.
Again, the only reason we don't have this is so an army of accountants can make a living off of H&R Block and software developers can sell turbotax. This shouldn't been done decades ago.
Democracy Dollars
Fight the influence of mega-donors in our elections and allow the voice of the people to be amplified by providing every American voter with $100 Democracy Dollars for each federal- and state-level election cycle
I like this idea, but I've seen some interesting criticisms before. For example, large scale elections like presidential elections will be swamped with donations, with some people who really dont need the money getting tons of it, while more local races would end up getting little to nothing. I like the idea, but it needs work.
American Exchange Program
Initiate the American Exchange Program as part of our public education system to foster civic engagement while introducing young Americans to fellow peers they would otherwise never have the opportunity to meet.
NO! Fundamental opposition to this. I'm not against the idea of teaching people to understand people of other viewpoints, but I'm FUNDAMENTALLY against the idea of making high school students do public service projects. That's authoritarian, and I'm 100% against this one. I wanna END WAGE SLAVERY. Like, I literally don't believe in forced labor. And that's what this amounts to. No, Yang, no, bad.
I mean, love most of your ideas, but this one, just, no.
Civic Juries
Convene “civic juries” made up of representative groups of Americans to deliberate on key issues and legislation.
Another nice on paper idea I'm not sure of in practice. While I'm not fundamentally opposed to the idea, I have concerns. My big one being, I don't trust average citizens to govern directly. The past two years have shown the average American is dumb, and half of Americans are even dumber. We got people collecting darwin awards left and right, and I don't want the same people who think taking horse dewormer instead of a vaccine for COVID is a good idea deliberating on any sort of public policy. I mean, I have nothing against referendums, I have nothing against anyone running for office, but I don't really believe this is an idea I would like.
Given the nightmare school board meetings are recently with anti vaxxers being toxic as heck, I can't see how this could go well.
Accessible and Secure Voting
Voting is time consuming and seemingly set up to disenfranchise large swaths of voters, which is why turnout even in presidential elections lags behind many other countries. We can restore confidence and engagement in the democratic process by making voting easier and more secure.
Basically, reading further, he wants early voting and vote by mail, as well as other basic common sense proposals. In which case, yes, I support this.
Overall 10.5/14 = 75%
Like with his major proposals, my level of agreement with him is around the 75-83% range. I only partially agree with some proposals, and flat out reject a few, but most of his ideas here are good and make a lot of sense. I have to generally agree with the general gist of his forward party.
If I say I agree with 5/6 of his major proposals, and weigh them twice as much, my level of agreement with Yang's forward party is 79% (20.5/26).
That's pretty good, as I said, if I get 80% agreement, I consider that a very strong political ally. 79% is only slightly below that.
That said, yes I agree with Yang for the most part here.
More considerations
Look, despite being mostly yang gang, I still am a bit of a Bernie Bro on some priorities. This dude has said NOTHING about healthcare. NOTHING. What happened to that? That was a huge selling point of his presidential run for me. His abandonment of it is a huge reason I voted for Bernie.
What about his student debt forgiveness proposals? I understand all he did was remove the tax bomb from student loan forgiveness, but that's still very important.
What about climate change? maybe he doesn't need a climate change proposal given Biden is making some progress on this front, but it would be nice.
Look, I might not agree with progressives on everything these days, but they still have good policies and proposals and leaving them on the table is somewhat problematic for me. He doesn't need to implement every single solution ever. Im not gonna rip him over more minor stuff, but I would've at least liked to have seen healthcare mentioned here. I mean really universal healthcare is a must have and kind of a big deal, and I feel like without this, I feel somewhat conflicted about supporting his run.
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