Tag: andrew yang

Calling Out Capitalism

I’m going to “stay in my lane” talking about how us peers can be well and recover whatever the political climate. The fact is that everyone loses not just Black American workers playing the zero-sum game of late-stage capitalism. Though this has been the scenario for too long I trust that advocates for worker’s rights can turn the tide in our favor.

While this might be true about capitalism I remain a fan of getting a job you love waking up in the morning to go to. More on what this type of job could be in a future blog entry.

Here today I just would like to write about something I read in a book. It was a quote from comedian Chris Rock who said that it’s not progress that Barack Obama was our first Black president. Rock retorted that Black persons have been qualified to be president for 100 years.

In the current political climate I think everyone should band together. We cannot expect the government to help ordinary Americans. I’m not a fan of either Liberals or Conservatives.

I didn’t think Joe Biden was the best we could do. The current president is thinking of giving Americans 20 percent of the money he cuts from government spending. I call that a poison pill disguised as Sweet Tart candy.

Democratic candidate Andrew Yang would’ve given every American citizen 18 and older a monthly not one-time payment of a $1,000 Universal Basic Income or UBI. Other world countries give their citizens a UBI.

Our elected leaders pressed and pushed will enact laws that benefit Americans. This is often a slow drawn-out process. That’s why I’m not a fan of relying on or waiting on the government to help us.

The idea of working at a job you love has been universally denounced by authors of worker’s rights books. I beg to differ in championing finding and succeeding at a job you love. As there are building porters who love their jobs and work with dignity and provide for their families. Custodians in public libraries clean and sweep and mop.

Whoever works wherever all of us should be treated right by management and customers alike. For today I will end here by writing that I’m going to talk in a future blog about how working hard is not to be frowned on. I’ll detail the method for working hard the right way. Without exhausting yourself and getting fatigued.

Giving Americans a Universal Basic Income

The person who would’ve had my vote in the Democratic primary was Andrew Yang.

Alas, he dropped out a couple months ago.

Yang had a solid plan for giving every American citizen a Universal Basic Income of $1,000 per month.

His campaign website had detailed where the money would come from and how it would be paid out.

In countries in Africa and elsewhere in the world the government gives people a Universal Basic Income.

The Yang website countered the detractors of a Universal Basic Income. Andrew Yang detailed the benefits of giving everyone this guaranteed cash.

I’m in favor of giving American citizens a Universal Basic Income.

Like Yang foresees I don’t think the jobs lost to computer intelligence are coming back.

And we cannot fault individuals who are unemployed or underemployed. It’s not always their doing that they can’t get a job or hold a job long-term.

Detractors claimed people would use the Universal Basic Income to buy street drugs and alcohol.

Who are they kidding. I see no reason why the government can’t give every citizen $1,000 per month.

The fact as I see it is that in my estimation 90 percent of Americans would put the money to use feeding and clothing themselves without having to go into debt.

A Universal Basic Income could help workers that constitute the “working poor”–people who have jobs yet might live in homeless shelters because they can’t pay rent.

A Universal Basic Income would enable people living in recovery to see a therapist of their own choosing.

A Universal Basic Income would give people living in recovery the cash to pay their psychiatrist. [Most shrinks don’t take insurance round here and elsewhere.]

A Universal Basic Income is something to think about.

It should be kept on the table with the candidates remaining in the coming presidential election.

In the next blog entry I will return to talking about recovery.