“A vitally important book.”—Mark Cuban
Despite being written off by the media, Andrew Yang’s shoestring 2020 presidential campaign—powered by his proposal for a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for all Americans—jolted the political establishment, growing into a massive, diverse movement.
In Forward, Yang reveals that UBI and the threat of job automation are only the beginning, diagnosing how a series of cascading problems within our antiquated systems keeps us stuck in the past—imperiling our democracy at every level. With America’s stagnant institutions failing to keep pace with technological change, we grow more polarized as tech platforms supplant our will while feasting on our data. Yang introduces us to the various “priests of the decline” of America, including politicians whose incentives have become divorced from the people they supposedly serve.
The machinery of American democracy is failing, Yang argues, and we need bold new ideas to rewire it for twenty-first-century problems. Inspired by his experience running for office and as an entrepreneur, and by ideas drawn from leading thinkers, Yang offers a series of solutions, including data rights, ranked-choice voting, and fact-based governance empowered by modern technology, writing that “there is no cavalry”—it’s up to us. This is a powerful and urgent warning that we must step back from the brink and plot a new way forward for our democracy.
Author
Andrew Yang
ANDREW YANG is an entrepreneur and former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate whose campaign outlasted over a dozen established political officeholders and attracted support from hundreds of thousands of everyday Americans, dubbed “the Yang Gang.” His best-selling books The War on Normal People and Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy helped introduce the ideas of Universal Basic Income and ranked-choice voting into the mainstream. His most recent work was the novel The Last Election, cowritten with Stephen Marche. Named by President Obama as a Presidential Ambassador of Global Entrepreneurship, Yang is the cofounder of the Forward Party, a new independent political movement dedicated to restoring the promise of American democracy. He was also the founder of Humanity Forward and Venture for America, and currently serves as the founder and CEO of Noble Mobile, a new wireless carrier designed to save Americans money and get us to look up more. He lives with his family in New York.
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