As we look forward to the 2020 elections, Shondaland will be covering the candidates and the issues that are important to the American people. Be sure to check back for our continued coverage.

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In 2011, I started traveling frequently across the country for the non-profit I founded, Venture for America (VFA). My work brought me to cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Birmingham, and Atlanta, to collaborate with startups and entrepreneurs to build businesses and create thousands of jobs in these once bustling but now struggling industrial cities.

During my time in these cities, I saw what happened when a factory goes out of business and the jobs disappear. Local stores start closing, and malls become symbols of urban blight and centers for illegal activities. People can’t find jobs, and — by the numbers, many go on disability and never come off it. And children leave for better opportunities elsewhere.

So, VFA went in with the goal of creating 100,000 jobs and rebuilding these economies. I’m proud of the work we did at VFA, and my work with the Obama Administration as a Presidential Ambassador for Entrepreneurship and a Champion of Change, but for every job we created, hundreds were being lost to automation. We were pouring water into a bathtub with a giant hole in the bottom.

And then, Donald J. Trump won the 2016 election.

I’m a numbers guy, so I dug into the data to understand what was going on. Once I saw the full picture, the reason became clear. There’s a straight line between the adoption of industrial robots and movement towards Trump in the 2016 election.

The automation wave is just getting started.

Some experts are calling it the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Studies show that by 2030, one out of three American workers are at risk of losing their jobs to these new technologies — and unlike with previous waves of automation, this time new jobs will not appear quickly enough. Our labor force participation is near a multi-decade low at about 63 percent, and many of the new jobs added to the economy are are temporary, gig, or contract work, none of which allow someone to receive healthcare or plan for the future. A recent study showed that a majority of recent graduates are underemployed (i.e. working in a job that doesn’t require their degree).

As people get displaced in this environment, some quit the workforce and others file for disability. Drug overdoses and suicides have surged to the point where life expectancy has declined for three years in a row, which hasn’t happened in 100 years. And an entire generation is saddled with so much student loan debt that they’re not getting married, buying houses, or starting families.

Supporters of Andrew Yang march outside of the Wells Fargo Arena before the start of the Liberty and Justice Celebration Scott Olson Getty Images

When I spoke to a group of 70 CEOs, I asked how many of them were looking to automate their back office workers. Every hand in the room went up. When I talked to my friends in Silicon Valley, they told me they had the smartest people in the country working for them to develop software that would automate away jobs, such as trucks that can drive themselves. When there are 3.5 million truckers in America, that’s an alarming signal.

This is the greatest technological and economic transformation in our history. It already came for manufacturing workers. Next up will be retail workers, fast food workers, call center workers, and trucker drivers — the most common jobs in the economy. But these aren’t the only jobs at risk — software is being developed that can do the work of accountants, lawyers, and even doctors.

It’s going to get worse, and, if we don’t do anything, we’re going to leave our kids a worse world than the one we inherited.

The American Dream is dying by the numbers. A millennial today only has a 50-50 chance of doing better than their parents. For someone born in the 1940s, the likelihood was 90 percent.

Seeing all of this, my first move wasn’t to run for President because I am not insane.

Instead, I went to Washington, D.C., to ask our leaders what they were going to do about the impending economic transformation. However, having spent so much time in Washington, they didn’t understand just how much the average American was hurting. Their answers were too small to meet the challenge. Some told me we needed to study it further, but I showed them the studies we’ve already done. Others said we needed to invest in retraining programs, but the data shows that retraining programs 0 to 15 percent effective, and that’s for the workers that are even accepted into the programs.

The economy is changing, people are hurting, and the politicians aren’t even paying attention.

As an entrepreneur and a problem solver, I knew that if no one else was going to do it, then I had to. Like many parents who think about the world we’re leaving our kids, simply doing nothing was not acceptable to me.

Like many parents who think about the world we’re leaving our kids, simply doing nothing was not acceptable to me.

I looked for solutions that would be big enough to match the problem and came across the concept of universal basic income. Looking into its history, it is actually a deeply American idea, championed by Thomas Paine at our country’s founding and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s. Alaska, a deep-red conservative state, adopted the idea and started paying every Alaskan between $1,000-$2,000 a year in 1976. The program is universally popular and has lowered crime rates and improved children’s health.

That’s how I arrived at the flagship proposal of my presidential campaign: $1,000/month for all Americans over the age of 18, no questions asked. I call it the Freedom Dividend, a form of universal basic income that would provide a floor for all Americans to build upon, create over two million jobs, get the economic boot off people’s throats, reduce poverty, and ease the transition of this great economic transformation for millions of Americans. It would also recognize the kind of work my wife, Evelyn, does taking care of our two young boys, one of whom is autistic. Today, GDP values her work at zero. But we all know the work of stay-at-home moms is some of the most important — and difficult — work in our society.

BRIDGET BENNETT Getty Images

Today, 78 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and 40 percent can’t afford an unexpected $400 bill. That’s unconscionable for the richest, most advanced country in the history of the world.

We are the citizens and shareholders of this great nation and deserve to share in its prosperity. As it stands, the average American is paying more than the biggest winners of the economy. Amazon is sucking millions of dollars out of communities while paying $0 in taxes. The drug companies are making record profits, yet the research for most new pharmaceuticals was funded by taxpayer dollars. These companies aren’t paying their fair share — it’s no wonder Americans can’t get ahead.

When we rewrite the rules of our tax code to get them to pay their fair share, we can start to return that money to our people. What would $1,000 a month mean for the average American? During the course of my campaign, I’ve been giving Freedom Dividends to people across the country, and the response has been heartening. Jodie Fassi in New Hampshire used it for car repairs. Kyle Christensen in Iowa, after taking care of his mother who is recovering from cancer, bought a new guitar and has started playing shows while taking care of his mother. For others, it’s a night out with their family, or little league baseball signups. It’s taking a chance on starting a new business, or saving for college. It’s paying off debts, or leaving an abusive relationship. It’s being able to get your head up and start planning for the future.

That is my vision for a trickle-up economy — from our people, families, and communities up. But that’s just a start. We need to start measuring our progress as a country using metrics that truly matter to our well-being, such as childhood success, mental health, and environmental quality. These are things we can get excited about — when was the last time you woke up excited about GDP? These changes will be part of my proposed new American Scorecard and put us on a path towards a society where people are more important than profits. A society where everyone is given a chance to thrive in the 21st century. This is the new way forward that we can all get behind.

The problems we face as a country require bold solutions, and we must rise to the challenge. It’s the only way we can look our kids in the eyes and say: your country loves you, your country values you, and you are going to be all right.

Andrew Yang is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. He is the founder of Venture for America, a nonprofit organization that focuses on creating jobs in struggling American cities. Twitter: @AndrewYang

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