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Presidential hopeful Andrew Yang is standing by his plan to cut every citizen a monthly check -- just for being over 18 -- and says it's a necessity to help American workers who keep losing jobs to robots.

The NY entrepreneur broke down his "freedom dividend" plan Wednesday on "TMZ Live" ... telling us the $1,000 monthly stipend to all adults won't make people lazy -- in fact, he says it's the exact opposite.

Watch ... Andrew says there's cold hard proof his proposed plan will make people want to work, get an education and improve the economy -- and you don't have to look beyond our borders to find it.

The candidate also addressed any comparisons to Donald Trump -- a businessman with no previous political experience. His bottom line -- the current POTUS doesn't represent every entrepreneur, and Yang's sure he can do better.