Andrew Yang's Presidential Bid Is So Very 21st Century

Discussion in 'Politics' started by gwb-trading, Apr 3, 2019.

  1. gwb-trading

    gwb-trading

    Andrew Yang's Presidential Bid Is So Very 21st Century
    https://www.wired.com/story/andrew-yangs-presidential-bid-is-so-very-21st-century/

    It’s probably fair to say that in the history of politicking, few politicians have publicly declared what to do about America’s crumbling malls, or how to provide free marriage counseling for all, or how to make filing taxes fun. But Andrew Yang, who’s gunning to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, certainly has—and those are the more minor concerns among a dizzying list of 80 policy positions on his campaign website.

    It’s an indication that Yang is running a rather methodical, data-driven, science-happy campaign. He’s applying that approach to more standard-issue problems like labor, climate change, and the economy but giving them a decidedly tech-forward approach: how (and why) we should define robots, what use might geoengineering have in saving the planet, and whether the government should embrace universal basic income and give every American a $1,000 check.

    Yang talked with WIRED about all this and more in a recent interview.

    (The conversation below has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

    Matt Simon: You've been talking a lot about automation. We've had waves of automation before, but now with robots and AI, things seem different. Why wouldn't it be a transition like we saw in the mass mechanization of agriculture, where people shifted into other jobs?

    Andrew Yang: Four million manufacturing workers lost their jobs over the last number of years. According to economic theory and the precedent you just referred to, then these 4 million workers would get retrained, reskilled, and relocated and find new jobs in another industry. In reality, nearly half of them left the workforce and never worked again, and of that group nearly half filed for disability. It's very lazy to say, “Hey, decades ago something happened to farming workers, so magic will ensue this time.” You can very clearly see the magic was not there for the manufacturing workers; the magic will not be there for the retail workers or the call center workers.

    (More at above url)