The Fourth Industrial Revolution, a shift to automation and artificial intelligence (AI) that threatens an old model for growth based on low-cost export manufacturing, could potentially bring about a tectonic shift in American politics. As the US president intensifies his trade war against China and demonizes the immigrants who helped make America a great nation, dozens of Asian-Americans are running for federal office and playing up their Asian roots.
The Associated Press identified at least 80 candidates of both parties—Democrats and Republicans—including incumbents gunning for federal positions. “There are currently 18 Asian-Americans or Pacific Islanders in Congress; three are in the Senate.”
Here’s the potential game changer: New York-born second-generation Taiwanese American entrepreneur Andrew Yang has announced he will run for US presidency in 2020.
Yang’s presidential campaign slogan is “Humanity First,” playing up on the belief that automation and AI could potentially wipe out millions of jobs in the US. Riding on his success in the high-tech world, the entrepreneur said the only way to keep the US stable and prosperous is to launch a universal basic income that offers each American adult a certain amount of cash on a monthly basis, whether they have work or not. If American voters push him into the Oval Office, he said he will fulfill his promise to give $1,000 a month UBI to all American adults. The money for this wealth redistribution program will come from adjustments in the tax structure.
Yang’s UBI proposal is not a new idea. Some Western thinkers had been playing with this as early as the 18th century. In the 1970s some countries launched experiments on the concept on a small scale. But it’s not until the past few years that the idea picked up momentum, thanks to the advent of automation and AI that continue to threaten millions of jobs not only in the US but also in other advanced countries.
There’s common agreement that the development of AI may have a far greater impact on human society than any previous technology revolutions. In 2017 a report from the McKinsey Global Institute found that 800 million workers worldwide will lose their jobs to robots by 2030, including 39 million to 73 million in the US. This is the scary scenario that’s helping Yang get serious attention.
The only potential 2020 presidential candidate who is running on UBI so far, Yang hopes the idea will help him become the first Asian-American president. Ironically, he draws inspiration from Trump who joined the presidential fray a complete political outsider. Like Trump, he hopes to get the support of Americans who were fed up with the negative impact of automation.
The first Asian-American Democrat ever to run for the Oval Office campaigned in Kennedy-country in June, trying to bring attention to automation and AI that are dissolving American jobs. According to Apple Daily, the 43-year-old Yang has raised $130,000 after filing the necessary paperwork at the Federal Election Commission, and is expected to raise millions for his campaign. The New York-born Yang believes that if he can make it in the Big Apple, he can make it anywhere, the White House included. As long as the idea that the US is the land of opportunity persists, will we see the first Asian-American president in 2020?