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MR. YANG: BECAUSE AMERICANS REALIZE THAT WE HAVE BIGGER PROBLEMS THAN JUST DONALD TRUMP. ADAM: AT POLITICS AND EGGS , ANDREW YANG SAYS AMID THE CHANGE AND ECONOMIC DISLOCATION OF A FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, AMERICANS NEED A UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME A MONTH , $1000 TO EVERYONE OVER THE AGE OF 18. HE CALLS IT A FREEDOM DIVIDEND. MR. YANG: THIS IS NOT MY IDEA. THIS IS A DEEPLY AMERICAN IDEA EMBEDDED IN OUR HISTORY. THOMAS PAYNE WAS FOR IT AT THE FOUNDING OF THE COUNTRY. CALLED IT THE CITIZENS’ DIVIDEND. MARTIN LUTHER KING FOUGHT FOR IN THE 1960’S. ADAM: THE TECH ENTREPRENEUR TURNED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SAYS OIL FUNDS A LOW-LEVEL UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME IN ALASKA. HE BELIEVES APPLYING PROPERTY RIGHTS TO PERSONAL DATA COULD DELIVER A WINDFALL FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. MR. YANG: HE WAS SAYING THAT OUR DATA IS OURS, AND IT SHOULD BE OUR PROPERTY, AND IT SHOULD BE OURS, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER WE LOAN IT OR LEASE IT TO THESE TECH COMPANIES. IT STILL SHOULD BE OURS. ADAM: POLITICS AND EGGS FOUNDER FRED KOCHER, WHO HOSTS NEW HAMPSHIRE’S BUSINESS ON WMUR, SAYS AS MORE PEOPLE TUNE IN TO THE 2020 RACE, YANG NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO SELL VOTERS ON THE IDEA OF A FREEDOM DIVIDEND. FRED: HE IS GOING TO HAVE TO EDUCATE EVERYBODY, INCLUDING THOSE OF US WHO THINK THEY WE’RE SMART, AND THOSE OF US WHO ARE NOT SURE WE ARE. BUT IT’S AN EDUCATION PROCESS. ADAM: THAT YANG HAS MADE IT THIS FAR IS ONE OF THE GREAT SURPRISES AND STORIES OF THE 2020 PRIMARY. NOW, AS THIS OUTSIDER TRIES TO GAIN THE INSIDE TRACK HERE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, HE’S GOING TO NEED TO WIN OVER SOME PARTY REGULARS. MR. YANG: I’VE BEEN THRILLED BY THE MOMENTUM THE CAMPAIGN HAS GOTTEN. CERTAINLY WE MIGHT HAVE STARTED AS SOMETHING OF A NEWCOMER/OUTSIDER, BUT I FEEL LIKE I’M BECOMING MORE AND MORE A PART OF THE ESTABLISHMENT AS WE GET MORE SUPPORT. ADAM: HIS BACKERS LOCALL

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Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang pitched his universal basic income plan to a crowded room of New Hampshire business and political leaders Wednesday.>> Download the FREE WMUR appSpeaking at a traditional Politics and Eggs breakfast at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, Yang warned, as he has in past appearances, that automation and artificial intelligence are already taking the place of millions of jobs, with more jobs at risk in the near future.He said that as an example, self-driving trucks are especially a threat, citing the livelihoods of 3.5 million truck drivers and 7.5 million people who work in truck stops, motels and diners that rely on truckers’ business.“We must educate and retrain Americans for the jobs of the future,” Yang said. But he said federally funded retraining programs have been in effective and must be revamped.Life expectancy in the U.S. has declined for three years in a row for the first time in a century because of economy-related “deaths of despair,” Yang said.“Americans realize that we have bigger problems than just Donald Trump, and we need a vision that actually helps move America forward in this time of unprecedented change,” Yang said.He said his $1,000-a-month universal basic income plan is not new.“Thomas Payne was for it at the founding of the country and called it the citizens’ dividend,” he said. “Martin Luther King fought for it in the 1960s.“One thousand economists, including Milton Friedman, endorsed it in the 1960s. It was so mainstream, it passed the U.S. House of Representatives twice under Richard Nixon, called the family assistance plan.”“The biggest winners of the 21st century economy are not paying back into the system,” Yang said, citing the huge high-tech companies that profit from data. “And they’re paying zero, or near zero, in taxes.” “New Hampshire is the place where the future will be built,” he said, praising the state’s political power as the host of the lead-off primary.“We have to accelerate our economy and society as quickly as possible,” Yang said. “We have to build a trickle up economy that will actually work for every American.”How would Yang pay for it?“If you give the American people our fair share, a tiny slice of every Amazon sale, every Google search, every Facebook ad, every robot truck mile, you would generate hundreds of billions of dollars of new revenue very, very quickly,” he said. And, he said, as the money from the distribution of the universal basic income circulates through the economy, “we actually get a lot of that money back, through economic growth, through more hiring, more activity. We generate hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax revenue as a result of bolstering the consumer economy.”Yang said that once in effect, the universal basic income will result in savings.“We save billions on things like incarceration, homelessness services, emergency room health care,” he said. “You’d see higher graduation rates, better mental health, better decision-making, less domestic violence, lower hospital visits.” After the breakfast event, Yang continued campaigning in New Hampshire, with stops in Concord, Plymouth, Conway and Berlin planned through Wednesday and Thursday.