Interview with Andrew Yang, 2020 Presidential Candidate

“It is my conviction that we are going through the greatest technological and economic shift in human history, and our political class is completely asleep at the switch.”

On May 4th, Merion West’s Henri Mattila interviewed Andrew Yang, a Democratic Party candidate for the 2020 U.S. presidential election. After working as an attorney and serving as CEO of test preparation company Manhattan Prep, Mr. Yang went on to found the non-profit fellowship Venture for America, where he is currently CEO. He is the author of a number of books, including The War on Normal People, published in 2018. He has been honored multiple times by the White House, most recently being named as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.

In this interview, Mr. Yang outlines his vision for implementing a universal basic income scheme in the United States as president, his views on the increasing automation of many American jobs, as well as a number of other issues on which he will focus when elected.

Thank you for joining me today, Mr. Yang. First, for our readers who haven’t read your book War on Normal People, could you provide me with what you think are the key takeaways?

Thank you for having me.

The first takeaway is that our economy has changed for good; we’re in the process of automating away most of the labor categories in the U.S. This is no longer speculative, but we’re in the middle of it. If you look at the manufacturer workers who were displaced over the last couple of decades, about 40 percent have left the workforce, and about half of those went on disability. The labor participation rate in the U.S. has declined to 62.9%, which is a multi-decade low, comparable to levels in El Salvador and Dominican Republic.  In addition, American life expectancy has declined for the last two years.