Yeah, so I found this very interesting, too – and did some research and it would seem that Bernie’s against U.B.I. the same way Marx himself was against it: U.B.I. doesn’t address the underlying problem of capitalism but mere extends the expiration date of capitalism by proffering scraps to the exploited.
It seems to make sense theoretically but in practice I gotta say that a thousand a month for life would be infinitely much more useful to me than a guarantee that any job I get I’ll make at least fifteen an hour.
Hear, hear!! I’m also tired of being caught between the BLM drama queens and the Wall Street fellaters.
Indeed – I’ve only been converted on this myself this very afternoon!!
I’m still against legalization of marijuana and statehood for Puerto Rico – but whatever. I can live with those, however fitfully.
I agree that that’s the more practical and realistic way of doing things – at least for the foreseeable future when we still seem to need capitalism but clearly it’s got its defects.
Well, there’s no need for a pension with U.B.I., is there?? Though Yang’s definitely for a government-backed single-payer healthcare system.
So this is a very interesting – if basically “academic” – point because the Marxists say, IIRC, that a wage floor is exactly what will keep the exploitative system going, rather like making sure slaves are properly fed and given Sundays off.
I suspect this is why Bernie himself has shied from U.B.I. on several occasions throughout the years.
This is what I fear most, that we’ll get the corporate blackface (yes, corporations doing blackface) we had with Obama, thereby preventing any meaningful positive change.
Oh, okay, my apologies: for some reason I got it in my head that links were not allowed, not the message itself to donate (though yes you’d specified that).
Well, that solves the mystery of why my whole message was deleted!
Yeah so I’m unclear as to whether he’s already qualified…'cause in two videos, including the Georgetown U. I’d cited earlier today, he states that he’s already achieved the 1% name recognition – though it’s not certain whether he means that in the sense of qualifying due to, as you note, having achieved that on three separate polls or he’s only achieved that on one poll or two somewhere…
He held his own quite well, to my relief, against that guy Varney on Fox Business…there’s a six-minute video on YouTube of put-down after put-down, but Andrew stayed focused and on-message – though Varney’s nowhere near as scathing as Trump so that’s still a concern.
Yeah, I know Obama tried but even way in the beginning when I was even less experienced politically than I am now I had a feeling that he was basically a corporate candidate. (Yes yes Republicans blocked him at every turn but I believe he could have mounted a Bernie-style “insurgency” due to his popularity and just didn’t 'cause being a good Clintonian corporate triangulator is just in his political DNA.)
Hey, thanks! And thanks for starting this thread – I was doing research on Yang and that’s how I wound up here (though I’d heard of TSD before).
Yeah, no, actually, I hope Yang stays away from the identity politics stuff…I mean it’s obvious he’s Asian but hopefully he develops some way of not getting bogged down in “p.c. culture” one way or the other…it’s gonna be hard 'cause he’s gotta seek the Dem nomination which has the big “traditional lefty” talking points that gotta be ritually acknowledged…
Andrew handled it okay, though the African-American host was being polite, too, in not pressing him on it…so again I’m just concerned ('cause hey a thousand bucks a month starting 2021 or so would help, yeah!) 'cause Warren, Booker, and Harris are already on record as being for ADOS Reparations and many blacks are gonna just want that, understandably enough, even though that’ll be the kiss of death in the general election.
Depends on what you mean by “supporter”…I do share the disdain for “p.c. culture” that many Trump people also express and I’m glad that his successful candidacy has forced establishment media to confront that.
I mean, BLM drama queens screaming at Bernie of all people??? Yeah, I’m glad Trump’s undercut that to some degree. Just look at that Covington Catholic High School mess, never mind the Smollet drama.
I really hope Andrew manages to avoid all this…because it seems like there will be folks who want to pin him down on these issues in the Dem primary – to the almost certainly fatal detriment of his general election performance.
I particularly like how Yang is framing the narrative outside the bounds of traditional Capitalism vs. Socialism. We need to take the best of both. It’s a nuanced argument, which may not play well in a national election driven by tweets and soundbites, but I’m guessing a lot of the electorate who reject Socialism outright will find a way to embrace a monthly $1,000 dividend.
Never underestimate the effectiveness of a straight cash bribe!
It is remarkable that somewhere in the last 150 years or so our species figured out ways to produce and distribute enough goods to provide every person on the planet with basic levels of food, water and shelter. We chose not to. We thought it more virtuous to have some people aggregate far more than they could ever consume while others literally starve. Future historians will expand what we condescendingly call the Dark Ages to include our own century.