The War on Normal People
The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future
by Andrew Yang


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This is Andrew Yang's campaign book, published in April 2019, just around the time that his polling numbers qualified him for the early Democratic primary debates. Yang's credential to run for the presidency is that he's a self-made millionaire who made his fortune by doing good. We'll explore that credential in this book review, and how it relates to his unparalleled appeal to younger voters.

The 2020 election marks a turning point in American politics because business success is now considered a sufficient credential to run for president, due to Donald Trump's 2016 victory based on that credential alone. Every president elected before Trump was either an elected official, or a high-level government appointee. The 2020 campaign cycle features six candidates whose major credential is that they served as corporate CEOs:

• Andrew Yang made his fortune at several startup companies, the most important of which were Manhattan Prep, a GMAT standardized test prep service, and Venture for America, which provided capital for non-profit start-ups. He was appointed as an honorary "Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship" by President Obama in 2015, but has no history of electoral campaigns nor high-level government appointments.
• Howard Schultz, who briefly ran for president in 2019 as an independent, provides the best model for Yang: he made his fortune running Starbucks and portrayed himself as a CEO focused on social change. Schultz withdrew his candidacy after heavy harassment by liberals worried that he would be a "spoiler" in the 2020 race between Trump and the more liberal Democratic nominee. Yang overcomes that criticism by running as a Democrat.
• Tom Steyer made his fortune in banking and finance, but also worked for several years on ballot initiatives in California, several of which passed. Steyer portrays himself as politically experienced due to those ballot initiatives, but like Yang, he has held no elective office nor government appointments. Steyer is NOT a model for Yang, however, because Yang explicitly opposes making one's fortune in banking and finance.
• Mike Bloomberg also made his fortune in finance, but then got elected mayor of New York City. Bloomberg's campaign is declining all donations, which excludes him from the Democratic primary debates, but he plans to spend millions on TV ads to make up for it. Yang is merely a millionaire, not a billionaire like Bloomberg, so Yang relies on donations (and hence qualifies for most debates).
• John Delaney made his fortune as a healthcare CEO, but then took a more traditional path of running successfully for Congress before running for President. Delaney made the cut for the early debates, but fell off the radar when the polling criteria got stricter (he's still in the running, as of this writing). So much for the traditional path of proving "electability" after a CEO stint.
• Don Blankenship is another CEO whom most voters haven't heard of, even though he ran for Senate (in West Virginia in 2018). He switched to the Constitution Party after losing the Republican Party nomination in that race, and is seeking the Constitution Party's nomination for president. He calls himself "Trumpier than Trump" and obviously believes in the Trump CEO candidacy model (Trump DID run for office prior to 2016, twice!)

• Ross Perot ran for president twice against Bill Clinton, and made a name for himself by supporting the BBA Balanced Budget Amendment and opposing NAFTA, both of which remain staples of political discussion today. He pioneered creative TV ads (which cost millions) along the lines that Bloomberg is attempting in 2020.
• Pat Buchanan is perhaps the most important model for Trump, and perhaps served as the source of Trump's agreement with Buchanan against trade, against immigration, and for prosecuting the Central Park Five, all of which were populist causes when Trump and Buchanan both ran for president in 2000. Buchanan did, however, serve in high-level appointments in both the Nixon and Reagan White Houses.
• Ralph Nader ran as the Green Party nominee for president in 1996 and 2000. Nader worked for decades on ballot initiatives and class-action lawsuits, which may have inspired Tom Steyer to believe he was eligible for a presidential run.

So what does Yang actually talk about? His young supporters all sport "MATH hats", an acronym for "Make America Think Harder," on blue hats, and Yang wears a "MATH" lapel pin during the debates. The "MATH" logo contrasts the red MAGA hats (Make America Great Again) that Trump supporters wear. But Yang doesn't talk about MATH at all in this book (it was made up afterward, we suppose). He does talk about "UBI" in this book, a LOT (pp.165-85), and also talks about it at every debate. That's the "Universal Basic Income" which Yang proposes as the solution to every problem from welfare dependency to homelessness and joblessness to higher education costs -- several of our excerpts provide details.

We think Yang's 2014 book, Smart People Should Build Things, is better for policy discussion and better for voters getting to know Yang, but Yang doesn't talk about ideas from that book on the campaign trail. Yang does talk about every idea in this book in the debates, incessantly, making it mandatory reading for prospective members of the Yang Gang. But they should read the earlier book to fully understand what wearing a "MATH hat" means. --JKAG Jan 2020

-- Jesse Gordon, editor-in-chief, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, January 2020

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Budget & Economy     2008 quantitative easing benefited institutions, not people.

Corporations     1970s: Companies exist only to maximize share prices.     1970s: Companies exit only to maximize share prices.     Joined corporate boards; new precedent for ex-presidents.

Drugs     Drug companies and medical system produces opioid addicts.     Drug companies and medical system produces opioid addicts.

Education     Reimagine college in the age of automation.

Families & Children     Boys raised in one-parent households suffer more than girls.     Boys raised in one-parent households suffer more than girls.     Raising children has been hardest experience of our lives.     Having children tests 2 parents; single parents even harder.     1969 Family Assistance Plan: guaranteed income of $10,000.

Health Care     Single-payer system solves biggest problem of over-billing.

Homeland Security     Universal service is idealistic but wildly expensive.

Principles & Values     Former Presidents Act provides $250,000 per year for life.

Social Security     Disability creates a permanent shadow class of beneficiaries.     Disability creates a permanent shadow class of beneficiaries.

Tax Reform     1980: replace welfare with negative income tax.     Institute 10% VAT, like 160 other countries.

Technology     2016: automation attenuates link between work and earnings.     Culture wars are proxy for automation-shattered economy.     Culture wars are proxy for automation-shattered economy.

Welfare & Poverty     2014: Every American entitled to minimum standard of living.     1969: build foundation under income of every family.     We'll debate unconditional free money over next 10 years.     Every American is entitled to minimum standard of living.     Income supplements via negative income tax.     Build foundation under the income of every needy family.     UBI costs $1.3 trillion, but grows economy by $2.5 trillion.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Andrew Yang Barack Obama Bernie Sanders Gerald Ford Harry S Truman Milton Friedman Richard Nixon