Andrew Yang: A New Take on Capitalism

Andrew Yang, a New York businessman, is a Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election. Yang’s campaign centers around a progressive platform that is unique and controversial. His main proposals include a monthly universal basic income for all Americans, a rethinking of modern capitalism, and a plan to promote Medicare for all. As of February, his campaign has raised almost $600,000 in donations. This is a relatively low amount when compared to other candidates’ fundraising (Bernie Sanders raised around $6 million in a single day), but nevertheless an accomplishment for a first-timer.

Yang’s most controversial proposal—and the one that has gained the most attention—is his idea of universal basic income. Yang’s “Freedom Dividend” would provide every American adult over the age of 18 with a stipend of $1,000 every month. While he realizes that this gives Republicans an opportunity to classify his campaign as a socialist movement, Yang describes it as a step toward an America with “capitalism where income doesn’t start at zero,” he said. Yang claims that a UBI of this scale would help reduce poverty, improve quality of life across the board, and mitigate the potential disruption of American jobs as a result of automation and artificial intelligence. Yang proposes placing reasonable limits on his UBI policy, such as requiring a constitutional amendment to alter the stipend and making it illegal to lend or borrow against one’s Dividend to ensure that it is used only for necessities.

Like many other Democratic candidates in the 2020 field, Yang supports Medicare for all. He wants to either expand the current Medicare program or create an entirely new single-payer system provided by the government. He also claims that doctors would be “free” from being paid for their services—an optimistic way of saying that medical professionals would be paid less—and assumes that in order to create a more comprehensive healthcare system, doctors would spend more time with each individual patient.

The candidate’s most vague idea is what he calls human-centered capitalism. He redefines American and Western market ideas by emphasizing humans over money and replacing the dollar with the individual person as a unit of economic measure. For example, instead of defining economic health with GDP or imports and exports, Yang proposes to measure it with standards of living, childhood success rates, and adjusted life expectancies.

While Yang’s chances of securing the Democratic nomination are slim at best (recent data has him polling with support from less than 1 percent of Americans), his unique policy proposals have earned him attention throughout the Internet and from the press, though whether that is a benefit or a detriment remains to be seen.