Andrew Yang's ideas are better than you think

As job tasks get replaced, the same humans might be able to spend their time doing more productive stuff — they’re still employed, and they get paid more (or get paid the same but have more leisure time). Meanwhile, mass automation will increase society’s income, which will increase labor demand and create whole new categories of jobs that these st... See more

But replacing a job shouldn’t be the goal for unconditional cash benefits. Instead, the purpose of unconditional cash is to grease the wheels of capitalist life — to give people that extra boost they need to pay their parking tickets, or deal with a health emergency, or buy a little more nutritious food for their kids, or just make it to the end of... See more

Yang isn’t proposing a tax on automation (yet), but he needs to stop using fear of automation as a way to sell UBI. Besides the fact that the evidence is against it and it encourages bad policies, the “rise of the robots” narrative calls for a UBI that’s much bigger than anything Yang — or anyone — can possibly muster. If automation makes humans ob... See more