Andrew Yang says the ‘American Dream is dying.’ Here’s why

Democratic presidential hopeful and former technology executive Andrew Yang smiles during a campaign stop at the Black Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019, in Beaufort, S.C.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang opened up about his hopes to become president in a new interview with “CBS This Morning.”

Yang has risen to viral popularity — especially on social media — for his “Freedom Dividend” policy, which would give people $1,000 a month, or $12,000 per year. He has climbed so much that he has jumped into the top 10 for Democratic candidates. He will appear in the next round of Democratic debates next week from Houston, too.

Yang told CBS News that he has a somewhat dark outlook on the American dream, an idea he supports.

“Well, I’m a numbers guy,” Yang responded. “And so the numbers say that you have a 50/50 chance of doing better than your parents if you were born in the ‘90s. And that chance was 93% if you were born in the ‘40s or ‘50s. So the American dream is dying by the numbers. And Americans know it.”

Yang said he blames the rise of artificial intelligence and automation for the loss of the American dream.

“We automated away four million manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. And if those states sound familiar, those are all the swing states that Donald Trump needed to win and did win…” Yang said. “So to me, this is a straight automation story, that immigrants are being scapegoated for economic problems they have little or nothing to do with.”

Yang said he understands he’s not receiving a lot of coverage from the media. Yang gets more social media interaction than most candidates in the 2020 race, according to Axios. He is No. 4 on the list of candidates who are tweeted about during the debates. He is No. 6 in terms of polling average. But he’s No. 14 when it comes to articles written about him and No. 13 when it comes to cable news mentions, according to Axios.

And he didn’t get a lot of speaking time during the last round of CNN debates. In fact, as the Deseret News reported, fans spoke out on social media about the lack of Yang coverage during the debate.

But Yang told CBS News he’s still confident. He said he doubled his staff and wants to do so again.

And, he said, he won’t run for a third party.

“My job is to help get Donald Trump out of office,” he said. “And I would do nothing that would increase the odds of him sticking around. And I think a third party candidacy would do just that.”