Andrew Yang on how a universal basic income could help alleviate poverty in America
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang on poverty and homelessness in America.
"The View" co-host Joy Behar turned on fellow Democrat Andrew Yang's plan for a universal basic income Monday, describing the idea as unsustainable.
Yang was discussing his plan for a "freedom dividend," which would pay $1,000 a month to every American over the age of 18. He argues automation will create massive unemployment and said a UBI would provide relief and allow people to chose how they want to contribute to society.
"This is an idea that has been with America since its founding. Thomas Payne was for it. Martin Luther King championed it ... it's a dividend for every American as a rate of citizenship. So under my plan, every American adult would receive $1,000 a month starting at age 18, every month, until you expire," Yang said.
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But Behar immediately pushed back and said the proposal would cost $3 trillion, before asking the 2020 hopeful how he planned to pay for it.
"That would cost $3 trillion. Where's this money coming from? And what is the point of it really? Say if you give a man a fish -- if you give a man a fishing line, he can fish. If you give him one fish, he'll just eat that fish. Something like that," she shot back. "So you hand somebody a $1,000 -- now what good is that?"
Co-host Sunny Hostin said $1,000 a month would be a "gamechanger" for certain citizens, but Behar said it's not a good long term plan.
"I know it's a bit of a game changer, but it's not a long-term solution. Come on," she replied.
Yang argued the allowance would humanize the economy and allow mothers to be paid simply for taking care of their children. Once Yang said mothers and women would benefit from his plan, Behar suddenly changed her stance.
"Well, now you're talking about paying women for doing housework and work at home -- being mothers. That's a good idea," she said.
"This is a gamechanger for the waitress at the diner getting harassed by her boss. It's a gamechanger for the single mom who's stuck in an abusive relationship. We need to put the economic resources into people's hands to be able to improve their situations," Yang said.
Co-host Meghan McCain challenged Yang's approach of using federal funds to solve problems, and asked how his plan is different from several other high profile Democrats, who seek to use taxpayer money to fix major issues.
"Every Democrat that comes on, the answer is, write a check. And the problem is the deficit is going to my generation, and that's already the problem right now. So is there --."
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Behar cut McCain off to blame the GOP for the current deficit before McCain could finish her question. Once Yang was able to respond, he didn't give a direct answer in time for the commercial break.
"I understand the question. And so I've run companies and you have a revenue problem in this country and you have an expense problem in this country. And you have to go after both of them, but the big winner -- so if you have artificial intelligence that Amazon's investing billions of dollars in -- could displace three and a half million truck drivers. It's the most common job in 29 states. The amount of value that gets generated from that -- immense. Almost unbelievable, and right now the American people would get zero of that value. So if you put a mechanism in place you can actually generate hundreds of billions of dollars," he replied.
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