William Marvel: Discrediting Andy

When Andrew Yang first came to The Conway Daily Sun to stump for the Democratic presidential nomination, I liked him immediately, albeit mainly because he’s a very funny guy. Humor often consists of exposing human inconsistency on the spur of the moment, and it requires a quick wit to avoid going too far — especially in our new world of PC prudes, whose day is spoiled if they can’t find a reason to be offended. That sort of intelligence would be nice to have in a president again, although the last bright fellow in the White House disappointed us in other ways.

Yang's primary campaign issue was the idea of providing every citizen with universal basic income. Of course that put most people off, including me. The Democratic Party's recruiting of moocher-class voters with bribes of federal handouts has turned downright brazen in recent years, and this seemed like one more version of the same ploy. Still, Yang's sincerity and his allusions to the threat posed by automation and artificial intelligence motivated me to read his book and consider his argument.