Andrew Yang's Keynote Address at Progress Iowa

He's really been campaigning on a platform of ideas and it's been fascinating to watch how that has taken off and people have learned more about him and the policies that he's been promoting and I think that kind of candidate really could make headway. So please help me welcome to the stage Andrew Yang. Wow, I haven't even said anything yet. Thank you all. Thank you Iowa. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you Matt and Progress Iowa for having me and congratulations to Sydney and Abby for winning. I'm saying the only thing that would have made me even happier is if J.D. Scholten were here and had beaten Steve King because I freaking love J.D. Scholten. Now as Matt described, I am not a career politician. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I'm a guy who likes numbers. I'm a problem solver and I'm here with you tonight because of the biggest problem and the biggest question in perhaps the history of our country. It's a question that you all have been wrestling with for the last two years and it's a question that I believe we've been dishonest about the answers. And that question is this, why did Donald Trump win Iowa by almost 10 points in 2016? Why did he win in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, all swing states that have traditionally been competitive? And the reason is this. The reason he is our president today is that we automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, and 40,000 right here in Iowa. We know that when jobs disappear, people get angry, despair rises, and blue turns to red. That is why he is our president today. And I'm here to say that unfortunately this is not going to get any better. I just spent time in Silicon Valley where I've lived in part for the last six years and my friends in Silicon Valley tell me that what happened to the manufacturing workers is about to happen to the retail workers, the call center workers, the fast food workers, and the truck drivers right here in Iowa. Now this may seem far-fetched to you all, but how many of you have noticed stores closing here in Iowa in your Main Street economies? You all in addition to losing 40,000 manufacturing jobs, you've also lost 12,000 retail jobs and there are another 178,000 Iowans who work in retail and trade around the state. How are they going to feed their families when their Main Street businesses shut their doors? There are thousands of call center workers here in Iowa that do that job every day. How many of you saw that Google recently debuted artificial intelligence software that can do the job of a call center employee? You want to see that demo online? Some of you are nodding. So we know that those jobs are going to disappear in the next two to four years. I was just at Iowa 80, the largest truck stop in the country, in Davenport, and they proudly say 5,000 people stop here every day. But my friends in Silicon Valley are working on trucks that can drive themselves. They tell me that they are 98% of the way there. And the reason why they have hundreds, thousands of the smartest people in the country working on that problem is there's a giant pot of gold in it for them. $168 billion a year is their economic incentive to automate away freight. But again, there are 30,000 truck drivers here in Iowa make about $46,000 a year. How will those truck drivers provide middle class lives and lifestyles for their families after their jobs start to dry up? This is the greatest economic and technological transformation in the history of the world that we are in the midst of right now. We are in the third inning and the third inning has brought us Donald Trump. The first inning was the deregulation of financial services. The second inning was the demolition or the decimation of manufacturing jobs. The third inning where we are right now is the obsolescence of brick and mortar retail. The fourth inning will be autonomous cars and trucks. The fifth inning is artificial intelligence doing the job of lawyers and accountants and other white collar jobs. This is the great challenge of our era and unfortunately Donald Trump is a symptom. He is not the cause, he is a symptom. And as the Democratic Party, it is up to us to offer real solutions to the problems that got Donald Trump elected. What we need is new ideas and a new economic vision. And that is why I'm running for president. So my vision has three big pillars. The first pillar Matt mentioned was the freedom dividend. Simply put, every American adult gets $1,000 a month, free and clear, no questions asked. Do whatever you want. Now raise your hand if that seems far out or dramatic or too good to be true and raise your hand on that. No, it's cool. I understand. I thought so too until I looked at our history. This is a deeply American idea that Thomas Paine was for at the founding of the country. Decades later, Martin Luther King was for it. A thousand economists signed a letter saying this would be great for the economy and society and it passed the House of Representatives twice in 1971 under Richard Nixon of all people. It came this close to being law and then it became law 11 years later in one state. There's one state where everyone in that state now gets between $1,000 and $2,000 a year, no questions asked. And what state is that? And how do they pay for it? And what is the oil of the 21st century? Technology, that's right. In Alaska, they call it the oil check and they love it and we're going to call this the tech check and you're going to love it. The tech check would put $16 billion a year into the hands of Iowans. It would create 40,000 jobs right here in Iowa because we know where that money would go. We know that money would go to car repairs, food and tutoring for your kids, healthcare, home repairs you've been putting off, the occasional night out. That money would be spent right here in Iowa. And that's the only way you're going to get that value back because right now there are these black holes just sucking that value out of your communities. We have to be honest. Why are your stores closing? There's a one-word answer for that. What is that word? Amazon. That's right. Amazon is just sucking value out of your main street and we're going to get it back. That's why I'm running for president. Now the Democratic Party is the party of empowering women and I'm going to suggest to you all that there's nothing more dramatic and powerful we could do to empower women than to put $1,000 a month in the hands of every adult because there are thousands of women here in Iowa that are in exploitative or abusive jobs or relationships because they lack the economic freedom to walk away. And we can change that. The freedom dividend is the most genuine thing we could do to give women control of their future and compensate and recognize women for the vital and unrecognized work they do every day in our communities. So this is the first big move and if anyone tells you we can't afford it, our economy is up to $19 trillion, up $4 trillion in the last 10 years. We can easily afford a dividend of $1,000 a month. But we can't stop there. We have to move healthcare off the backs of American families and businesses. We have to move to single-payer Medicare for all. I've been a CEO and I know it keeps you from hiring, it keeps you from expanding, it keeps you from changing jobs. It's insane that in the richest and most advanced country in the history of the world, when you get sick or injured, you are more worried about paying for your healthcare than getting well. That is immoral and we can change it. And then the third thing, I like to ask a question. How many of you get excited about GDP when you wake up in the morning? If you raise your hand, you're a better man than I am. So GDP is a measurement we made up almost 100 years ago that's going to go up and up even as more Americans get left behind. An example I use is that my wife is at home right now with our two young boys, one of whom is autistic. And what does GDP value her work at? Zero. What does the market value her work at? Nothing. Zero. And we all know that's nonsense. We all know that she's contributing much more than the average hedge fund analyst or software programmer. So we need to create new measurements that actually show how we're doing. Instead of GDP, we should be measuring childhood education rates, average income, mental health and freedom from substance abuse, environmental sustainability, the proportion of our elderly who can retire in quality circumstances. If we change the measurements, we can change everything. So these are the three big ideas to get us through, again, the most challenging economic transition in the history of our country. The freedom dividend, Medicare for all, and the American scorecard, which is what I call this new version of GDP. Now I go around the country and I talk to various people, and a lot of people have given up hope, truly. They look up at our political system and they see that there are these giant dysfunctional pipes clogged with money. And there's nothing that most people can do about it. And then I tell them that there is hope. There is hope. There's a vulnerability in the system, and there is hope. And that hope is the people of Iowa. Because what you decide is where the country will go. There is only one way for us to build a trickle-up economy, from our people, our families, and our communities up. And it all starts here, with you, the Democrats and progressives of Iowa. And unfortunately, it is the only way. If you do not take this opportunity, then we are lost for another four years. And we can look forward to the robot trucks, and the stores closing, and the call center workers getting sent home. We have to take this opportunity and seize it. We do not have unlimited time. And so my ask for you all tonight is for you to take this new vision of the economy, this trickle-up economy, this human-centered economy, this vision, and make it yours. Because with your leadership, we can take this vision to the rest of the country in 2020. With your leadership, we can actually build an economy that centers upon us, the owners and shareholders of this great country. And with your help, with your leadership, we can reverse this disaster of a presidency, because the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math. Thank you very much, Iowa. Thank you, Iowa. God bless you all. God bless the United States of America. Thank you. Let's have one more round of applause for Andrew Yang. Thank you.