Does Andrew Yang get interesting? The mayor’s forerunner has recently developed a habit of governing reasonable proposals for Gotham, but rather a big picture, and it drives his opponents crazy. Yang has not proven that he is ready to become mayor, but the indifferent responses of his competitors to even the most obvious ideas show that this is not the case.
The least interesting or constructive idea of Yang is its distinctive issue: universal basic income. Last year, he elected president to give $ 1,000 a month to every adult in America. The idea is to give them the bad choice about what to do with their money, rather than handing them vouchers for housing, food and so on. UBI gives everyone a weapon against wage stagnation and the automation and offshoring of work.
The Big Apple cannot give every adult $ 1000 a month. It would cost $ 80 billion a year, exceeding tax revenue. Yang is thus offering an exposed version of its ‘universal’ plan: $ 167 a month for the poorest half-million New Yorkers. But he never explains important details.
Ignore UBI though, and Yang has other useful ideas. Last week, he suggested that the city not raise taxes on top earners because it could drive them away. ‘If you raise taxes. . . ‘where people actually vote with their feet and go to Florida, then you do not serve the purpose of the policy,’ ‘he told the Association for a Better New York.
Yang also suggested that the city consider incentives to attract suburban workers who have been away from their Manhattan desks for a year to give the commute another chance. It’s also worth a try: Why not give people vouchers to take commutes, with an expiration date within a few months, to get the bored at home to the city? (Yang rival and city manager Scott Stringer has predictably accused him of practicing ‘municipal Reaganomics’.)
Yang also suggested that Mayor Bill de Blasio not spend the entire $ 6 billion in aid money we get from the funds. Since the city could face years of shortages, Yang would be wise to 70% squirrel away.
That’s wise – but another competitor, de Blasio’s former legal adviser, Maya Wiley, attacked him. “Our city deserves a serious leader, not a mini-Trump,” her spokeswoman said. Huh?
Brooklyn borough Eric Adams did not need a policy speech to tackle Yang. On one occasion in which a union approval was accepted – where he should have been in a good mood – Adams said that ‘people like Andrew Yang’ never ‘ [their] Whole life. . . . you are not going to come to this city and think you are going to disregard the people. ”
Yang is a lawyer. He has worked at startups, run a school testing firm and set up and run a non-profit training business to be entrepreneurs in struggling cities. He’s always had a job. And he’s been living in New York for a quarter of a century.
What is behind the attacks is that the inner circles become afraid of the outsider.
The insiders’ bet is that Yang’s frontrunner status will disappear as voters pay attention. Yang had about 16 percent of the vote, followed by Adams. Half of the voters remain undecided.
But the idea that people are suddenly going to learn who Stringer and Adams are and get excited about it is pretty rare. And as the latest poll from Fontas Advisors shows, people – 85 percent – know for sure who Yang is.
But they also know who Stringer and Adams are, with 64 and 62 percent, respectively. Wiley, with 42 percent, has room to introduce herself. The others do not.
Stringer and Adams are also threatened by other candidates with low name recognition. Ray McGuire was a career investment banker; Kathryn Garcia managed the Sanitation department. Only one third of voters know who they are. As voters learn, they may like what they see, and cut into the indecisive.
The last game card: vote in the rankings. Sure, Adams and Stringer could fight for a few votes with each other, only to see everyone split their first choice between them, and then choose Yang, the sweet Yankees contestant, as their second choice and place him on top.
Yang’s critics are not entirely wrong: he shows an awful lack of familiarity with the city government, and some of his ideas – such as building a casino on Governors Island – are just weird and dumb. But for voters who want to turn into a crisis, its well-known big rivals are too familiar with the government.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor of City Journal.
Twitter: @NicoleGelinas