Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919
The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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20-May-2019:
Andrew Yang's Universal Basic Income
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Andrew Yang is a 44-year-old entrepreneur who filed with the Federal Election Commission to become a candidate for the Democratic nomination on November 6, 2017. He has spent most of his career in start ups working on healthcare software, college test prep, and a program for getting talented students into start ups across the country.
Yang's most famous idea is his promise to institute a Universal Basic Income or UBI if he is elected. This program would give $1,000 per month to every American aged 18-64. The idea is that automation is continually reducing the number of good-paying jobs in the United States and this is a way to help the people affected by this socioeconomic change.
Apparently Yang got this idea from Martin Ford's book “Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future.”
It is true that automation, robots, and artificial intelligence are eliminating jobs and will continue to do so. Still, I think our focus should be on encouraging innovation that will create new jobs that pay fair wages, and on preparing people to succeed in those jobs.
A jobless future is not in anyone's interest. Without jobs the poor and middle class won't be able to put food on the table. Without jobs the rich won't have anyone to sell their products and services to which means, ultimately, they won't be rich anymore. Since a jobless future hurts everyone we should be able to find a solution that will include good jobs for everyone.
As a moderate I believe that NOT helping people displaced by technology is too extreme in one direction but just handing them a wad of cash is too extreme in the other direction.
As independent thinkers and political moderates, we can do better.
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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library
Books for Independent Thinkers
Truman
Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today
The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It
Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics
The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle
Eisenhower: The White House Years
The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison
Lincoln
Reflections of a Radical Moderate
Washington: A Life
The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority
Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party
Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life
Theodore Roosevelt: A Life
The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides
Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates
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Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway
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