Hello,

I will admit some bias since Andrew Yang is the first presidential candidate that I have ever been super excited about. He is compassionate, pragmatic, unifying, and super smart. I can't speak to economic policy, but want to say that Yang did address the concerns about inflation, regressive tax, "trojan horse" etc. multiple times. At the end of the day, we don't know which policy is the best since nothing like this has been administered on a national level. Guaranteed jobs rub me the wrong way. It feels infantilizing. Some income redistribution is needed given the automation and the increasing wealth gap, but I would much rather that the government trust me to know what to do with the financial help than to dictate to me what I should be doing with my time. If I ever fell into a hard place, I don't want to end up doing some inefficient, possibly meaningless work that I do not enjoy. I would much rather take the money, spend it on essentials and use my creativity to figure out next steps. UBI puts trust in the people, whereas programs like guaranteed jobs puts more faith in the idea that government knows best.

Best,

Helen