Andrew Yang on Universal Basic Income and Measuring Our Economic Health

Thanks for making the time for us. So, you are you're in this thing. You're polling higher than some governors, some congressmen, senators. And a lot of people, I think it's safe to say, did not know who you were a very short time ago. Yes, that's fair to say. And you're running on this idea of a universal basic income, which is giving every American $1,000 a month. And are you worried that because you're polling higher that as other candidates get desperate, they'll start offering $1,100 a month? Well, that would be a version of victory, Seth. I've said for a while that I'm either going to win or the other candidates are going to sound a lot like me. Well, that's a very good way of looking at it. I do want to talk, because I'm fascinated by this idea of a freedom dividend. Before we do that, it does seem like you're having fun out there, and I think that's really important. I believe this is all just in the last week or two. Here's a montage we've made of you enjoying yourself on the campaign trail. You're having a good time out there. Yes. Yeah. So, I think one of the reasons, again, people are happy to see you, they're happy to hear you, is you've had this idea of, I'm going to give you $1,000 a month if I win this thing. Now, obviously, Democrats who are on stage with you, a lot of them have big ideas for health care, education. They think that your plan is maybe going a little too far. So, explain really quickly this universal basic income idea, like why you think it is the core of what is behind your plan. First, it's not my idea at all. It's been with the United States since our founding. Thomas Paine was for it. Martin Luther King was for it. And one state has had a dividend for almost 40 years, where everyone in Alaska gets between $1,000 and $2,000 a year. And some Alaskans, that's great. And so, what they're doing for Alaska with oil money, we can do for everyone in the country with technology money. Because right now, we're in the midst of the greatest economic transformation in the history of our country, and it's what got Donald Trump elected. The fact that we blasted away 4 million manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, all the swing states that he needed to win. So, we need to take the bounty of the 21st century economy and start returning it to people. And though everyone associates me with $1,000 a month, it's really about what the money would do for us. It's going to make us stronger, healthier, mentally healthier. You talk about how things... Did I just get applause? They were all... They were being quiet because they were jealous of those two Alaskans with $1,000 in their pocket. They're like, they already got it. You talk about how GDP and the stock market are bad indicators of exactly where this country is at as far as its economic health. And it may seem trite, but you think that we need to judge economic health on happiness. Is that an accurate distillation of the way, do you think? It's not quite happiness, but that's essentially right. Where GDP is at record highs right now, also at record highs, stress, financial insecurity, even suicides and drug overdoses. It's gotten so bad that even though we're at record high GDP, our life expectancy has declined for three years in a row, the first time in 100 years. So, you have to ask yourself, are the measurements wrong? Or are we actually prioritizing this production number over the lifespan of our people? And to me, it's obvious the numbers are wrong and you need to update them to include things like our health and well-being, our mental health and freedom from substance abuse, but also things like clean air and clean water, how our kids are doing, the real measurements for American success. You talk about numbers adding up, and I think, you know, it makes sense that a lot of people would ask how you pay for $1,000 a month, all Americans. You yourself, I believe, put the price tag at around $3 trillion, is that? It's a bit less than that, but if you look around, who are the big winners from the 21st century economy? It's a company like Amazon that's up to a trillion dollars in value, and they literally paid zero in taxes, less than everyone here in this studio. So, of course, you're gonna struggle to pay for things if you have trillion dollar companies paying zero. If we give ourselves our tiny fair share of every Amazon sale, every Google search, every Facebook ad, every robot truck mile, we can easily afford $1,000 a month for every American. You know, one thing you talk about, which is interesting to me, is when you say universal basic income, you mean it, that everybody would get this $1,000. There's no amount of money you could make in any given year that would price you out. Hey, look, trust me, I would not have had you on the show if I was on the outside looking in on the Yang plan. But explain, it's very interesting, the philosophy behind the idea of why it's good that everybody would get it. Why? Because some people would say, why did the wealthy get this $1,000 a month, as well? Can you just explain that? Well, if you look at the Alaskan experience, everyone's getting the oil dividend from the poorest Alaskan to the richest. And because of that, it's universally popular. There's no stigma attached to it. It's not like I'm paying for it, you're getting it. You don't need to monitor people's circumstances. There are no incentives to say I'm doing worse than I really am. And so because of that, in a deep red conservative state with a Republican governor, the petroleum dividend is wildly popular. And so if we make this a true right of citizenship, it will be popular nationwide. You, uh, you have an idea that I'm very behind the idea of how bad a viewing experience the State of the Union is. This is something you agree with. I completely agree. It's gotten bizarrely unwatchable. Yeah, it's very performative. It doesn't feel like you get a lot of information out of it. So my plan is to take the American scorecard with the real numbers of how we're doing and then present them to you, the American people, in a PowerPoint deck every year at the State of the Union. I'll be the first president to use PowerPoint. Hopefully that's a good thing. I don't know. I can't imagine PowerPoints pulling quite as well as $1,000 a month, but I like your moxie. Hey, thanks so much for being here. It's really interesting having someone out there who is talking about things nobody else is. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Andrew Yang, everybody.