Catherine Clifford at CNBC:
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang has a big goal for a relatively unknown business person: to reach the White House. And he’s aiming to get there by selling America on the idea that all citizens, ages 18-64, should get a check for $1,000 every month, no strings attached, from the U.S. government.
Yang, 43, who was born in upstate New York in 1975, will be running as a Democrat, according to his campaign website.
“People who think the antidote to Donald Trump is a boring generic Democrat missed the point. He is a sign of massive institutional failure. On both sides,” Yang said on Reddit on April 2.
A universal basic income (UBI) payment, which Yang calls “the Freedom Dividend,” is one of his major policies.
“The most direct and concrete way for the government to improve your life is to send you a check for $1,000 every month and let you spend it in whatever manner will benefit you the most,” Yang writes on his campaign website.
The government has “plenty of resources, they’re just not being distributed to enough people right now,” he says.
More here.