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Andrew Yang on Corporations

Democratic Presidential Challenger & Tech CEO

 


Anti-trust doesn't address issues of modern tech companies

Andrew believes that the current anti-trust framework doesn't address the problem of large companies that don't charge users or feel the need to report a profit. He would promote legislation allowing Americans to own their data and address the impact of technology on their lives, such as the mental health effects. He'd create a Cabinet-level Department of Technology staffed by experts and located in Silicon Valley to find ways to address the problems that these tech companies are causing.
Source: USA Today on 2019 Democratic primary , Nov 7, 2019

Set environmental standards for companies

One principle that we're going to have in our businesses here is that, if you are a very large business, you need to measure your carbon imprint and your effect on the environment. And then if we extend that to operations in other countries that are either of U.S. companies or, over time, our trading partners, then we can have more sophisticated standards that include environmental impact, not just for American companies, but the companies and countries we do business with.
Source: Climate Crisis Town Hall (CNN 2019 Democratic primary) , Sep 4, 2019

0.1% tax on the sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives

Andrew Yang on Wall Street Taxes: Create taxes on financial trades.

THREE CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Kirsten Gillibrand; Bernard Sanders; Marianne Williamson.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and entrepreneur Andrew Yang support a 0.1 percent tax on the sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives. Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed a similar plan. Author Marianne Williamson wants to eliminate preferential tax treatment of exchange traded funds.

Source: Politico "2020Dems on the Issues" , Jul 17, 2019

Competition isn't always the answer, like for tech giants

Yang said breaking up big tech companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook was "a 20th century solution to a 21st century set of problems."

Q: Should tech giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google be broken up?

A: "There are dynamics in technology, right now, that make it so that competition isn't always the answer."

Q: Does anyone deserve to have a billion dollars?

A: "Do I think there's something intrinsically wrong, there being billionaires in the world? No, I do not."

Source: 2019 "Meet the Candidates" (NY Times.com) , Jun 18, 2019

Same tax rate on capital gains as on earned income

Capital gains and carried interest currently receive favorable treatment by the tax code. This privileges investors over workers and promotes speculation. It's irrational that we privilege capital gains and investment income versus earned income. The top 20% own 92% of the stock market, and the bottom half of Americans own essentially zero. We should be encouraging and rewarding work first and foremost. An investor should not be paying a lower tax rate on gains than the person who is working hard every day. I've worked and invested and working is a lot harder.
Source: 2020 presidential campaign website Yang2020.com , Mar 29, 2019

Ran test-prep company, then sold it to bigger company

I was thirty [in 2005] when I started running Manhattan GMAT, and I was pumped. I articulated three core values and started putting them up on a screen before each meeting:For the full-time staff, it was important to me that they regard our little test-prep company as a great place to build a career: I decided to build a corporate culture. We had regular staff outings to celebrate record months. I figured that if these expenses kept turnover low and morale high, they would pay off many times over in high performance and consistent growth.

Prior to Manhattan GMAT, I'd been accustomed to something of a venture-capital mindset, to try to keep your investors excited. With Manhattan GMAT there were no investors to placate.

In 2009, after a competitive bidding process, we agreed to be acquired by Stanley Kaplan Test Prep and the Washington Post company.

Source: Smart People Should Build Things, by AndrewYang, p.83-5;92-6 , Feb 4, 2014

Enlist entrepreneurs as mentors

Source: Smart People Should Build Things, by AndrewYang, p.178-86 , Feb 4, 2014

Send top people to startups, not financial services

This book makes a basic argument. If year after year we send our top people to financial services, management consulting, and law schools, we'll wind up in the pattern we're already seeing: layers of highly paid professionals working astride faltering companies and industries. But if we send them to startups, we'll get something else. Early-stage companies would have a better chance of innovating and creating value. Even allowing for a certain amount of failure, we'd create hundreds of new companies and tens of thousands of new jobs over time. Our economy and our country would be better off.

We'd restore our culture of achievement to include value creation, risk and reward, and the common good. By solving this one problem, we solve many other problems at the same time.

We are hyper-allocating the bulk of our top graduates to professional services industries, while leaving promising new companies around the country under-resourced.

Source: Smart People Should Build Things, by Andrew Yang, p. xiv-xv , Feb 4, 2014

Economies recede after switch from making things to services

Our economy has progressed from making things to supplying financial services. It's not the first time an economy has made this transition.

Both the Netherlands and Great Britain were global manufacturing powers in their day. The Dutch and British then turned to financial services and insurance as the drivers of their economies. Unfortunately, it's hard for an economy to rely solely on financial services, and both countries receded from the world stage.

We no longer manufacture devices, we manufacture analyses. Investment banks, private equity firms, corporate law firms, and management consultancies are all vitally important to today's US economy. They offer prestige, high-starting salaries, training, expense accounts, and the promise of community and open doors.

Source: Smart People Should Build Things, by Andrew Yang, p. 16-7 , Feb 4, 2014

Explore ideas on the side while working full-time job

Here's a list of things you can reasonably do on the side as you're working a full-time job to explore an idea for a great new business:
    Research your idea (figure out the market)
  1. Undertake legal incorporation and trademark protection
  2. Claim a web URL and build a website or have it built; get company e-mail accounts.
  3. Get a bank account and credit card (you'll generally have to use personal credit at first).
  4. Initiate a Facebook page, a blog, and a Twitter account
  5. Develop branding (e.g., get a logo designed, print business cards).
  6. Talk it up to your network; try to find interested parties as cofounders, staff, investors, and advisers.
  7. Build financial projections and draft a business plan
  8. Engage in personal financial planning (e.g., cut back on expenses)
  9. Create a mock prototype and presentation for potential investors or customers.
Source: Smart People Should Build Things, by Andrew Yang, p. 63-4 , Feb 4, 2014

Venture for America: non-profit entrepreneurship support

My parents came to the US from Taiwan to make a better life. I wanted to do something to give back to the country that had given my family so much. I mean, here I was, a moderately rich dude in my mid-30s.

I began talking to people about this idea, which I called Venture for America--the most self-explanatory name I could think of. It would be a nonprofit with a three-part mission:

Our immediate goal would be to help create 100,000 new US jobs by 2025. To do that, we would provide to startups and growth companies around the country the talent they needed to expand and hire; and we would train a critical mass of our best and brightest to become business builders and entrepreneurs.
Source: Smart People Should Build Things, by Andrew Yang, p.115-6 , Feb 4, 2014

Start a company? More realistically "Join a team"

You want to join a team before it's cool and hope that the company takes off. If it does, you could have yourself a very good run. You could even wind up being the difference between the company taking off and languishing on a small scale.

These people--the builders who work with the founders to help these companies grow and prosper--are, in many ways, more appropriate role models. The plan should not be, for the most part, "start a company." More realistically, the plan should be "join a team." If you're positioned to start your own organization, that's great--but rare.

If you join a growth organization, you'll likely do different things in different roles throughout your career. If you have a good run, you can always come back and start something later.

And it's not just coders and engineers that these new companies need. Just about any growth company is going to need smart salespeople, content creation, and analytics.

Source: Smart People Should Build Things, by Andrew Yang, p.151 , Feb 4, 2014

Other candidates on Corporations: Andrew Yang on other issues:
2020 Presidential Candidates:
Pres.Donald Trump (R-NY)
V.P.Mike Pence (R-IN)
V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
CEO Don Blankenship (Constitution-WV)
CEO Rocky De La Fuente (R-CA)
Howie Hawkins (Green-NY)
Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian-IL)
Gloria La Riva (Socialist-CA)
Kanye West (Birthday-CA)

2020 GOP and Independent primary candidates:
Rep.Justin Amash (Libertarian-MI)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (Libertarian-RI)
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
Zoltan Istvan (Libertarian-CA)
Gov.John Kasich (R-OH)
Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Ian Schlackman (Green-MD)
CEO Howard Schultz (Independent-WA)
Gov.Jesse Ventura (Green-MN)
V.C.Arvin Vohra (Libertarian-MD)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Gov.Bill Weld (Libertarian-NY,R-MA)

2020 Democratic Veepstakes Candidates:
State Rep.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-GA)
Rep.Val Demings (D-FL)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen.Maggie Hassan (D-NH)
Gov.Michelle Lujan-Grisham (D-NM)
Sen.Catherine Masto (D-NV)
Gov.Gina Raimondo (D-RI)
Amb.Susan Rice (D-ME)
Sen.Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Gov.Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI)
A.G.Sally Yates (D-GA)
Abortion
Budget/Economy
Civil Rights
Corporations
Crime
Drugs
Education
Energy/Oil
Environment
Families/Children
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Immigration
Infrastructure/Technology
Jobs
Principles/Values
Social Security
Tax Reform
War/Iraq/Mideast
Welfare/Poverty

External Links about Andrew Yang:
Wikipedia
Ballotpedia

2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA)
Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)





Page last updated: Apr 29, 2021