Democratic 2020 candidate Andrew Yang is currently touring the country while campaigning on his “Freedom Dividend” proposal. The Freedom Dividend as he calls it is simply another name for UBI, or universal basic income. In Yang’s proposal, every American gets $1000 a month, no strings attached.
Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur and a marketer. He is simply repackaging UBI as the Freedom Dividend because as he has already admitted, that name tested better during focus groups than universal basic income did. So right off the bat, Yang is basically repackaging an old idea using the methods of an entrepreneur with some marketing experience. Simply take something old and repackage it to a new audience with a new name.
But that’s only the start of why the Freedom Dividend Yang proposes is so bad.
Universal basic income is a welfare system that will touch every American. And as countless studies and real-life observations have shown, welfare destroys the traditional family structure and makes them more dependent on government over time, not less.
How exactly does welfare destroy families? Welfare makes it more manageable to have a single parent household. There is no need for the mother to try to keep the father around, and the father knows if he disappears, the mother will get at least enough money to feed the children.
The overall effect of this ends up causing an increase in fatherless households. And studies have shown that fatherless households are one of the most significant indicators of a child’s success or failure.
A perfect example can be seen in the black community where fatherless rates currently hover around 70%. These fatherless households have a much higher chance of producing children who themselves get caught in the cycle of poverty, crime, drugs, and state dependence.
Before the giant increases in welfare use, fatherless households were much less common in the black community. In 1960, black fatherless households were only 17% of total black households. At 17%, that would put blacks at one of the lowest fatherless rates of any race by today’s standards. Even Barack Obama spoke about this in a 2008 speech.
“You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.” – Barack Obama
But currently, the black fatherless rate is close to 70%. A shocking increase and one that can be attributed to welfare. Welfare has taken the place of the father’s traditional breadwinner role. So fathers can walk away and mothers are more inclined to let them walk away instead of finding a way to make their family situation work.
But this isn’t just an issue with black families. White families have seen increases in fatherless rates as well and the impact on children has been just as bad. However, targeted welfare towards certain voting demographics by decades of Democratic policies in major cities have caused much more damage to the black and Hispanic community than to other races. But all lower income citizens, no matter their race have been damaged by welfare.
And now, Andrew Yang wants to bring this destruction to every single American household whether they ask for it or not. By giving households free money, it will only provide more of an incentive to have households where one parent is absent.
The idea of universal basic income is one of the most destructive notions proposed in the last several decades. The destructive impact of traditional welfare has been proven since the 1970’s. The results of disastrous Democratic subsidy programs are obvious to everyone and we have decades of statistics to prove it.
Handing out free money never makes anyone happier. Over time the results are always terrible. You dampen people’s ambitions, work ethic, and their need and ability to create a traditional household environment to raise their children.
So don’t be fooled by Andrew Yang’s latest marketing creation he calls the Freedom Dividend. It’s nothing more than welfare on steroids with a slick new name. There is nothing “free” about the Freedom Dividend. In the end, it makes everyone a slave to the government’s paltry handouts.
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