A short and concise read about Andrew Yang’s upbringing, work experience, life philosophy and political views. In my personal opinion, the book shows that Andrew is a down to earth, intelligent, kind, self-made entrepreneur who truly understands how our economy and society function. He puts politics and bullshit aside, tries to avoid making false promises, and is solely interested in making the US, and indirectly the rest of the world, a better place for future generations. He is the only candidate who understands how big tech works, and who truly understands the day-to-day problems millennials and gen-Zs are facing.

As an honorary #YangGang member (not a US citizen and therefore cannot vote) who has become obsessed with listening to Yang interviews, I was looking for a source where Andrew has the ability to go in depth on everything he believes in and why. If that’s what you’re looking for, this book will satisfy that craving.

Short Background - As the child of immigrants who grew up in a small rural town, faced some racism growing up, there is a sense that Andrew came from humble beginnings. He studied, worked hard, became a lawyer, worked at a healthcare company, launched an education startup and has done a lot more. He is a successful self-made entrepreneur living the “American dream”. Most importantly, he doesn’t feel like a career politician who’s ambitions were ever to enter the White House. Through experience, he discovered the problems that Americans are facing and genuinely wants to solve them.

Wealth Inequality - I resonated a lot with Andrew’s point of view on America’s wealth gap. There is no question that the wealth gap in American, and the rest of the world is widening, which is indeed a problem. However, Capitalism is working well and Americans have a higher standard of living than they ever have before. With that being said, the new generation is set up for failure. Housing and education is becoming increasingly unaffordable, and it is unlikely to change in the near future. Andrew points out that people born in the 1940s had a 92% chance of earning more than their parents, where those who were born in the 1990s only had a 40% chance of earning more than their parents.

Is this time different? - Andrew discussed how there was a lot of fear during the industrial revolution that machines would overtake all human jobs. While the agriculture industry did dwindle from a peak of 40% to 2% of the US’s economy, new jobs were created. He argues that the advent of the internet , ML and AI is different however, and that this time, the number of new jobs created will be far less than the number that is automated away. There is no way to predict the future, but I disagree for two reasons:

  • There is a famous saying I hear successful entrepreneurs repeating over and over: “history doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes”. Why should this time be different?

  • As someone who work closely with ML & AI researchers, I know how far with are from general AI. From my emperical experience, I believe we are going to move to an “ML/AI assisted” world, where AI acts as an aid to humans, but we are hundreds of years away from AI replacing us.

Silicon Valley - It’s undebatable that big tech (FANG companies, etc
) play a huge role in shaping our economy, society and politics on a global scale. Any leader in a major economic power today needs to have a firm grasp and understanding of how these companies function. With some politicians claiming that big tech should be broken up, others speaking in very abstract terms, and some just having no clue as to what’s going on, Andrew proves that how grounded he is with the “lay man”. As a tech employee, I could related to everything he said about tech employees. I won’t delve into the details, but all I can say is that he gets it.

Alaska petroleum dividend - Alaska has a trust funded by oil revenues that pays out a dividend to all employees. In a way, this is a form of UBI that has been around since the 1970s. Crazy!

Time Baking - I wasn’t familiar with Edgar Cahn’s Time Banking concepts prior to this book. The idea is that currency is time-based: you do 1 hour of work for someone in exchange to get 1 hour of work back from someone else. This was fun to learn about, but it goes against capitalism: it does not promote entrepreneurship and values everyone’s time identically. Sounds very Marxist to me