We are in the midst of the most significant economic transformation in the history of our country and the world. Our institutions are years behind the curve, and the majority of American’s are getting left behind.
It’s time to build an economy that puts people over profits. My platform embraces many of the ideas popularized by Andrew Yang. It’s built around the core idea that everything should work to serve humans, not the other way around. I’m passionate about running a Humanity Forward campaign, always thinking and debating with peers about what’s best for humans, and putting that into practice once elected into office.
Abundance
For too long, America has operated in a mindset of scarcity. It’s time that we unlocked the potential of humanity by switching to a mindset of abundance. Fighting for policies that will allow people to get their heads up and plan for the future.
The economy has fundamentally changed.
Automation is displacing millions of workers in America and around the world, including America’s leading trade partners, leading to a decreased labor force participation rate. The gig economy has accounted for a large majority of new jobs over the past decade. The old assumptions – companies would have to hire and treat their people well to keep talent around – are breaking down, as we’re seeing the most valuable companies employ fewer and fewer individuals. Threats such as global pandemics and climate change will impact workers in unprecedented ways.
Equalize the Opportunity Gap
The labor share of income in 35 advanced economies fell from around 54 percent in 1980 to 50.5 percent in 2014.
McKinsey Global Institute May 22, 2019 | Discussion Paper
My primary solution for this economic shift is the Freedom Dividend – a universal basic income of $1,000/mo. There are myriad ways to pay for this, primarily by working with everyone to leverage the > 1trillion dollars in static and unused capital sitting in cash on the balance sheets of some of America’s largest companies. One of the key imbalances in America’s taxation system is how capital income and labor income are taxed. Without villainizing our greatest success stories, I propose embracing basic fairness by equalizing brackets between labor and capital income and a minimum corporate income tax. With capital gains taxes matching the brackets of the progressive income tax system we all know via the income tax.
By embracing capital gains rates and corporate rates that match the labor (income) rates and a market-to-market system rather after-realized, we could quickly accomplish a two-fold goal; fair and equal taxation across income classes, as well as deploying idle capital into a productive cause that helps to grow the economy from the bottom up. For more information on how fair and equal taxation could raise more revenue, check out this study produced by the Brookings Institution.
