Andrew Yang wants to tax Amazon and Google like oil so every American can get $1,000 a month — no questions asked

'We’re facing an automation wave [that will eliminate] 20-30 per cent of American jobs in the next 11 to 20 years'

YangWasRight began trending on Twitter after the former presidential candidate’s financial policy was taken up by the Trump administration (Reuters)

Andrew Yang is a 21st century version of an oil man, and he says he wants to tax the very companies entrepreneurs like himself have founded in order to put $1,000 into the pocket of every American, every month, no questions asked.

Mr Yang made the case for the monthly checks — known as the Freedom Dividend, a type of universal basic income — on Tuesday in New York, where he stood framed by the arch in Washington Square Park.

Speaking to a crowd of young and diverse supporters huddled below umbrellas, the 44-year-old tech entrepreneur cited philosophers and US history, laying out why his plan isn’t as crazy as it seems at first glance in a country that celebrates itself on individuals earning their own way, and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

“One state passed a dividend where now everyone in that state gets between one and two thousand dollars a year, what state is that?” Mr Yang asked the crowd with his signature “MATH” hat on his head.

The crowd — which fell far from the 5,000 mark the campaign had advertised, but still big enough to make for good photos — roared back:

ALASKA

“And how do they fund it?” Mr Yang asked, with the rhythm of a tour guide getting to the good part.

OIL

“And what’s the oil of the 21st century?”

TECHNOLOGY

Mr Yang’s calls for taxing technology companies like Amazon and Facebook to pay Americans comes at what the long-shot presidential candidate and tech entrepreneur describes as a something of a tipping point in the US economy.

In the lead up to that call and return in New York, Mr Yang outlined several traditional industries that the technology world he has made his living in would disrupt, claiming that tech would eliminate as many as tens of millions jobs in the years to come.

In Mr Yang’s view, self serve kiosks will eliminate the McDonalds job where many people get their first taste for hard work. Truckers will be replaced by robots, leading to a collapse in the infrastructure — roadside hotels, gas stations, and diners — that sprouted up across the country to serve the sleep deprived drivers soon to be out of a job. Amazon will replace your neighbourhood retailer.

So, facing down a collapse in major industry, Mr Yang wants to give cash to Americans to help pay rent, their phone bills, and any other necessity they might need. Just like the oil industry has done in Alaska, annually, since 1982.

“We’re facing an automation wave [that will eliminate] 20-30 per cent of American jobs in the next 11 to 20 years,” Mr Yang said.

He continued, going light on the president considering he’s running as a Democratic presidential candidate: “Donald Trump is not the disease. He is a symptom. He is a man of his station in the automation wave that is ripping through our economy.”

As things stand, Mr Yang has quite a lot of work to do if he hopes to manage that symptom, however. In a burgeoning field of presidential candidates, he finds himself in roughly 12th place, with less than 1 per cent support in aggregates of polls. He’d have to find some miracle if he hopes to overtake the leading candidates in the field, which includes at least six US senators and a former vice president.

But, out in the crowd assembled in New York to see Mr Yang, supporters said the man in the baseball cap was “revolutionary”, and that he talks about issues that are often forgotten many of the men and women with better polling in the 2020 race.

“I like his policies. I like his universal income policy. I think that it really gets at — I think we’re kind of dancing around the point when we talk about other stuff, and we don’t get to the idea that people need to be able to survive,” Kelechi Aza, a New York City actress in her early 30s, said.

Ms Aza, who said her top pick in the race is Elizabeth Warren, continued: “And they need an income to do that.”

Mr Yang’s most die hard supporters note that he is more than just a candidate for universal basic income. His campaign website lists dozens upon dozens of specific policy proposals from gun safety to universal healthcare to ranked choice voting to autism intervention (his son has autism).

Alex Krupp, a 34-year-old software developer, said that he likes that Mr Yang has so many proposals, and that it shows he can “accurately identify problems”.

And, it’s that perceived keen eye that trumps Mr Yang’s lack of government experience.

“Experience is important to me, but fundamentally what’s most important to me is people who can accurately identify problems that we face as a nation,” Mr Krupp said. “Because if people don’t agree what the biggest problems and challenges are then, frankly, their ability to execute doesn’t matter all that much.”