Yang is only candidate with a plan to address change

In my more than 60 years, I have never become involved in a political campaign — until now.

Andrew Yang is the first candidate for president I have ever heard talk about the coming loss of millions of American jobs that will be replaced by technology (much like manufacturing jobs have been in the past decade or so). Self-driving cars (more than 1 million taxi- and ride-share drivers) and trucks (3.5 million drivers, plus roughly 7 million people working in truck stops), ever-improving artificial intelligence (more than 2 million call-center workers), and the continuing trend for us to shop online, eliminating millions of retail jobs (the single most common job in the U.S.), will put tens of millions of Americans out of work in the coming years.

As horrible as that prospect is, Andrew Yang has the solution. In fact, he has a comprehensive set of integrated solutions (visit www.yang2020.com) that address taxes, income distribution, healthcare, the environment, and just about any other major issue we face today.

For example, we currently tax labor (income tax, payroll taxes, etc.). As technology displaces people in the workplace, it makes sense for us to tax the technology and use that money to compensate our citizenry. Yang plans to take a small slice of every self-driven vehicle-mile, every online retail transaction, every AI-driven customer service call — in short, every instance where technology is displacing labor — to fund what he calls the Freedom Dividend: $1,000 in unrestricted income for every adult citizen each month, to be used as that person sees fit.

On the economy, Yang is the only candidate who sees the coming reality, talks about it, and has plans to address it. We will all benefit from a Yang presidency, more so than from any other candidate on the horizon.

Mel Ingalls

Gilford