Presidential hopeful Yang floats idea of $1,000 monthly 'dividend' for American adults

Brianne Pfannenstiel | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Andrew Yang, Democrat for U.S. President Democratic Presidential hopeful Andrew Yang spent some time in Iowa talking about the Freedom Dividend.

Andrew Yang, a Democrat and entrepreneur running for president, told Iowans that if elected he would support paying every American adult a monthly “freedom dividend” of $1,000.

“How many of you have heard of trickle down economics?” Yang asked the crowd of about 50 people who gathered to hear him speak at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair. “How many of you think that’s garbage and doesn’t work? Yes. So we need the opposite of trickle-down economics. We need trickle-up economics from our people up, our families up, and our communities up.”

Yang, a former tech executive who founded the Venture for America program, announced earlier this year he would run for president.

He says his “freedom dividend” — known otherwise as a universal basic income — would offset the effects of an economy that has shifted dramatically away from human labor and toward technological automation, costing countless Americans their jobs.

Yang argues the policy would grow the economy by giving consumers more to spend, and it would save the government money on things like healthcare by providing more money to cover costs on their own.

What’s more, he says, the country can afford it.

“Our economy’s now up to $19 trillion — up $4 trillion in the last 10 years alone,” he said. “We can easily afford this. Republicans are talking about austerity and the rest of it. But they just authorized a $1.5 trillion tax cut.”

Yang said he also supports the idea of “Medicare for all” as a way to ensure every American has access to affordable health care.

“If someone gets sick or injured, first they worry about getting well,” he said. “But second, they worry about how to pay for it. And that’s messed up in this country. We can do a lot better than that.”