
Andrew Yang's Presidential Bid Is So 21st Century - systematical
https://www.wired.com/story/andrew-yangs-presidential-bid-is-so-very-21st-century/
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doctorpangloss
> It’s an indication that Yang is running a rather methodical, data-driven,
> science-happy campaign.

Being a (1) "good grades" person trying to (2) solve "bad grades" problems
(like things the govt. does) and (3) having essentially no personal experience
in "bad grades" problems is a recipe for disaster.

To keep this on topic to the forum, this cultural disconnect between good
grades and bad grades society makes it really hard for giant tech companies to
enter new markets.

In my personal experience, a clear example of this is Google Stadia, which is
all good grades people who don't really play games trying to make a product
for bad grades people who play games all the time; or bad grades people who
couldn't work at Google but are talented in some other way so they work for a
game studio.

It's also why so many investors get sucked in by "fraudsters." They have the
intuitive notion that being in bad grades society makes you more effective at
understanding the average person's problems. But the interface between good
and bad grades involves a lot of lying!

Andrew Yang is kind of a distilled example of this, talking about stuff that
only people who lived in exclusively good grades society would believe is
effective on the face of it. It's not quite the same as being super rich
versus super poor (the typical dichotomy), because many people are super rich
and got bad grades and just don't believe in the supremacy of technocracy as
dearly as people who are its biggest beneficiaries.

The real problem is that when you're so deep in the thick of good grades, it's
so extremely hard to open up your perspective. You think you're entitled to
make all the decisions, and you think wielding power safely is to do so while
expressing photographed emotions between dispassionate and smiling.

Meet the Zuckerberg Robot Meme the Presidential Candidate. At least Mark
Zuckerberg had the good sense to look at the Facebook data and his New Jersey
ed-tech experiment realize how deeply unelectable (and unqualified) he is.

~~~
lawrenceyan
What do you mean exactly by “good grades” people / “bad grades” people?

Are you trying to make some kind of insinuation as to people’s intelligence
here? Do you literally mean people who got good grades in high school and
college versus those that didn’t get good grades? Clarifying your base
definitions would be very helpful in understanding the point you’re trying to
make.

~~~
PakG1
I get this. If you've ever done software consulting for horribly backwards
industries or companies, I think it's clear what he means. It's easy to look
from the outside and see obvious and clear solutions. Why don't they fix that
problem? Why do they still do that? You gather your requirements, make your
solution, and hand it over. Of course, it's never that simple. There is a ton
of historical gunk in their processes that people are too busy to fix, and
they're busy tearing their hair out just to keep the ship running. Not even
agile can save your software solution, it was doomed from the start. Soon
enough, you're making spaghetti code to adapt to the spaghetti processes. It's
so horrible that it's obvious why no sane or superstar-talented person wants
to work there. It's not worth the pain and effort, it makes way more sense to
work for a company that has a lot of things figured out. Ah, Netflix, where
they publicly brag on their website about their culture and having dream teams
full of superstars. Heck, Netflix pays way better too.

So the company gets the employees they deserve, not the employees they need.
That isn't to say that Batman isn't worthy of respect. Batman saves the
company over and over again every day. But they really needed Harvey Dent.
Unfortunately, whenever a Harvey Dent goes to work for that company finally,
he either dies a hero and has to leave, or he lives long enough to become the
villain that just perpetuates the monstrosity and makes it worse. Hey, he's
getting his paycheque, whatever, who cares anymore. The company is still alive
and paying me. Before, I was so idealistic. Then I was biding my time while
looking for a better opportunity at another company. Now I'm so full of apathy
and cynicism that I'll just feed the machine while the machine pays me. I've
got mouths to feed and my employees like how I still play the hero now and
then. Heck, they even think I'm Batman, not Two Face. But every now and then,
I'll backstab Batman, because look at what I am now. I'm not Harvey Dent
anymore, I'm Two Face. But don't say that I'm not doing my job.

Companies get the people they deserve, they rarely get the people they need.
Andrew Yang is trying to be Harvey Dent.

~~~
whytaka
This was a delightful read.

~~~
sam_lowry_
I recongize so many people and situations at once in this little essay.

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largespoon
As far as I can tell, Andrew Yang is the only canidate to extensively outline
his positions.

[https://www.yang2020.com/policies/](https://www.yang2020.com/policies/)

~~~
dqv
This is rather common for all candidates. For example, Bernie Sanders
outlines[0] all his positions in a similar fashion. I'd actually be more
surprised if a candidate did not outline their positions this way.

[0]: [https://feelthebern.org/all-issues/](https://feelthebern.org/all-
issues/)

~~~
knolax
Not saying your wrong, but there's a disclaimer at the bottom of that website:

"This website was built & is maintained by volunteers with no official
relation to Bernie Sanders. We’re regular people, unassociated with any Super
PACs or billionaires. "

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madmulligan
How feasible would getting a federal UBI bill being passed even be? He can
want it and push it all day long but if the support from congress isn't there
(which it frankly isn't currently), what are the chances it will become
reality? Executive orders exist but they have their limits.

~~~
manfredo
Near zero. Few are really portraying how expensive this is. $1k a month for
every American is just under 4 trillion dollars. For every adult American it
would be just under 2.5 trillion. Currently, the entire federal budget is 3.8
trillion dollars. The GDP is 19.5 trillion. We're looking to spend an amount
equivalent to the entire federal budget or 10-20% of the whole country's GDP
on UBI. Yang's attempt to portraying this as fiscally feasible is based on the
assumption that UBI will automagically result in extreme economic growth.

~~~
Reedx
That's not how he portrays it though:

 _The means to pay for a Universal Basic Income will come from 4 sources:

1\. Current spending. We currently spend between $500 and $600 billion a year
on welfare programs, food stamps, disability and the like. This reduces the
cost of Universal Basic Income because people already receiving benefits would
have a choice but would be ineligible to receive the full $1,000 in addition
to current benefits.

2\. A VAT. Our economy is now incredibly vast at $19 trillion, up $4 trillion
in the last 10 years alone. A VAT at half the European level would generate
$800 billion in new revenue. A VAT will become more and more important as
technology improves because you cannot collect income tax from robots or
software.

3\. New revenue. Putting money into the hands of American consumers would grow
the economy. The Roosevelt Institute projected that the economy would grow by
approximately $2.5 trillion and create 4.6 million new jobs. This would
generate approximately $500 – 600 billion in new revenue from economic growth
and activity.

4\. We currently spend over one trillion dollars on health care,
incarceration, homelessness services and the like. We would save $100 – 200
billion as people would take better care of themselves and avoid the emergency
room, jail, and the street and would generally be more functional. Universal
Basic Income would pay for itself by helping people avoid our institutions,
which is when our costs shoot up. Some studies have shown that $1 to a poor
parent will result in as much as $7 in cost-savings and economic growth._

From [https://www.yang2020.com/what-is-ubi/](https://www.yang2020.com/what-is-
ubi/)

~~~
thatfrenchguy
VAT is one of the most regressive taxes though, I don’t understand how as a
progressive one could see this as a benefit.

~~~
nailer
Essentially Amazon and Google etc pay little corporation tax due to legal
avoidance schemes. VAT is one way to make sure they pay their share.

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Reedx
I've been encouraged by his campaign thus far. Which seems to be much more
focused on problems and solutions than engaging in the fruitless wrestling
match that is our current political reality.

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Syzygies
"a dizzying list of 80 policy positions"

If I could relive my narrow miss for student council president (long before
the Chicxulub crater), spraying positions everywhere like that would be the
first thing I'd avoid repeating.

~~~
zzzzzzzza
better than having literally no even semi-concrete policy positions. (see beto
or buttigieg's websites)

~~~
rosstex
Better than the candidate who says "I don't have all the answers, but as
President I will weigh the opinions of both sides carefully and make an
informed decision with the best interests of the American people in mind."

~~~
PKop
The problem is that candidate is undistinguishable from a chameleon who will
be pushed around either by popular sentiment, special interests, eventually
adopt policies you disagree with etc. Taking _some_ kind of concrete stand at
least lays a base of where they're coming from and provides metrics of success
or failure once in office.

The blank slate is more high risk high reward I guess.

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PakG1
Last month, I met various American MBA students from top US universities. Top
of the top. As we rode in cars and ate lunches, they chatted about Democratic
presidential candidates. They all didn't like Trump. This was about the time
that a number of candidates had announced, and they were discussing who they
liked or didn't like. I asked them what they thought of Andrew Yang, and they
had no idea who he even was.

It showed me how much of an uphill climb Yang has to even get name
recognition. I'd like to see any American to walk into any coffee shop and
ask, "Hey, so what do you think of Andrew Yang?" and see what kind of name
recognition he really has. If these top MBA candidates from top schools who
were so enthusiastic for discussing Democratic candidates did not recognize
him, who would?

As much as we might make fun of MBAs, I imagine them to still be more plugged
in than average as to what's happening in the world, especially if they're Ivy
Leaguers? Or does Andrew Yang really have good name recognition, and I just
got unlucky in running into posers who have no idea about anything? Or are
people really just not that plugged in after all?

~~~
ncphillips
> As much as we might make fun of MBAs, I imagine them to still be more
> plugged in than average as to what's happening in the world, especially if
> they're Ivy Leaguers?

I'm not really convinced this is a solid assumption.

