Human-Centered Capitalism - Yang2020 - Andrew Yang for President

Capitalism as an economic system has led to unparalleled innovation and improvement in the human condition. Many consider it to have “won” the war of ideas against socialism, but that simplistic view ignores that there is no such thing as a pure Capitalist system. And our current version of institutional capitalism and corporatism is a relatively recent development.

Our current emphasis on corporate profits isn’t working for the vast majority of Americans. This will only be made worse by the development of automation technology and AI.

We need to move to a new form of capitalism – Human Capitalism – that’s geared towards maximizing human well-being and fulfillment. The central tenets of Human Capitalism are:

Humans are more important than money
The unit of a Human Capitalism economy is each person, not each dollar
Markets exist to serve our common goals and values

The focus of our economy should be to maximize human welfare. Sometimes this aligns with a purely capitalist approach, where different entities compete for the best ideas. But there are plenty of times when a capitalist system leads to suboptimal outcomes. Think of an airline refusing to honor your ticket because they can get more money from a customer who purchases last-minute, or a pharmaceutical company charging extortionate rates for a life-saving drug because the customers are desperate.

Problems to be Solved

At present, the Market systematically tends to undervalue many things, activities, and people, many of which are core to the human experience.

We need to make the markets serve us rather than the other way around. Profit-seeking companies are organized to maximize their bottom line at every turn which will naturally lead to extreme policies and outcomes. We need government leaders who are truly laser-focused on the public interest above all else and will lead companies to act accordingly.

The United States has reached a point where its current form of capitalism is faltering in producing an increasing standard of living for the majority of its citizens. It’s time for an upgrade.
4/3/18 - The War on Normal People

Capitalism has to be made to serve human ends and goals, rather than have our humanity subverted to serve the marketplace.
4/3/18 - The War on Normal People

Capitalism is a wonderful, magical, powerful thing. But it optimizes for capital efficiency and capital gains above all else, really. And that worked well for a long time, because in order for capital efficiency, workers needed to benefit, the consumer economy needed to benefit, the middle class needed to benefit. It’s like Henry Ford and his, “How can my workers buy my car?” But we’re now at a point where Ford does not need those humans to build that car and they can have markets all over the place and don’t really care what’s going on in their own backyard.
1/9/19 - Freakonomics

When we put the money into our hands, we can build a trickle-up economy from our people, our families, and our communities up. It will enable us to do the kind of work that we want to do. This is the sort of positive vision in response to the fourth industrial revolution that we have to embrace as a party.
10/15/19 - Fourth Debate

GDP and corporate profits are at record highs in America today. Also at record highs? Depression, financial insecurity, student loan debt.
12/19/19 - Sixth Debate

Goals

Make the economy work for Americans, not the other way around
Direct capital to investments to improve human welfare, not to enrich the wealthiest Americans
Create measurements around people, not dollars

As President I will...

Change the way we measure the economy, from GDP and the stock market to a more inclusive set of measurements that ensures humans are thriving, not barely making it by. New measurements like Median Income and Standard of Living, Health-adjusted Life Expectancy, Mental Health, Childhood Success Rates, Social and Economic Mobility, Absence of Substance Abuse, and others will give us a much clearer and more powerful sense of how we are doing both individually and as a society.
Rein in corporate excesses by appointing regulators who are paid a lot of money - competitive with senior jobs in the private sector - but then will be prohibited from going to private industry afterward. Regulators need to be focused on making the right decisions and policies for the public with zero concern for their next position.
The government should create a modern timebanking system that will reward people and organizations who drive significant social value.

An excerpt from The War On Normal People

Imagine an AI life coach with the voice of Oprah or Tom Hanks trying to help parents stay together or raise kids. Or a new Legion of Builders and Demolishers that install millions of solar panels across the country, upgrade our infrastructure and remove derelict buildings while also employing tens of thousands of workers. Or a digital personalized education subscription that is constantly giving you new material and grouping you with a few other people who are studying the same thing. Or a wearable device that monitors your vital signs and sends data to your doctor while recommending occasional behavior changes. Or voting securely in your local elections via your smartphone without any worry of fraud.

Each of these scenarios is possible right now with current technology. But the resources and market incentives for them do not exist. There is limited or no market reward at present for keeping families together or upgrading infrastructure or lifelong education or preventative care or improving democracy. While our smartphones get smarter each season propelled by tens of billions of dollars, our voting machines, bridges, and schools languish in the 1960s.

This is what we must change.

At present, the Market systematically tends to undervalue many things, activities, and people, many of which are core to the human experience. Consider:

Parenting or caring for loved ones
Teaching or nurturing children
Arts and creativity
Serving the poor
Working in struggling regions or environments
The Environment
Reading
Preventative care
Character
Infrastructure and Public transportation
Journalism
Women
People of color / underrepresented minorities

And now, increasingly,

Unskilled Labor and Normal People
Meaningful Community Connections
Small Independent Businesses
Effective Government

There were periods when the Market supported some of these things more than it does today. Today, it needs to be steered to do so. The U.S. has reached a point where its current form of capitalism is faltering in producing an increasing standard of living for the majority of its citizens. It’s time for an upgrade.

The Next Stage of Capitalism

Adam Smith, the Scottish Economist who wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776, is often regarded as the father of modern Capitalism. His ideas of the Invisible Hand that guides the market, division of labor, and that self-interest and competition lead to wealth creation have been so deeply internalized that today we take most of them for granted. Our general thinking today is to contrast ‘Capitalism’ with ‘Socialism,’ which arose in the 1800s and advocated social ownership or democratic control of industries. Karl Marx published Das Kapital in 1867 and argued that capitalism contained internal tensions that would oppress the working class who would eventually rise up and take control. Our perception is that Capitalism – embodied by the West and the United States - won the war of ideas by generating immense growth and wealth and elevating the standard of living of billions of people. Socialism – represented by the Soviet Union which collapsed in 1991 and China which moderated its approach in the 1980s – didn’t work in practice and was thoroughly discredited.

This simplistic assessment misses a couple important points. First, there is no such thing as a pure Capitalist system. There have been many different forms of Western capitalist economies going back centuries ever since money was invented around seven thousand years ago. The market feudalism of the Middle Ages evolved into the expansionist Mercantilism of European trading companies, which evolved into the Industrial Capitalism of 20th century America, and into the Welfare Capitalism of the 1960s when the U.S. and many other advanced countries established safety net programs like Social Security and Medicaid. Our current form of institutional capitalism and corporatism is just the latest of many different versions.

Similarly, there are many forms of capitalism in service around the world right now. Singapore is the 4th richest country in the world in terms of per capita GDP. It has had an unemployment rate of 2.2% or lower since 2009 and is regarded as one of the most free and open, pro-business economies in the world. Yet the government in Singapore regularly shapes investment policy and government-linked firms dominate telecommunications, finance, and media in ways that would be unthinkable in the U.S. Singapore’s system of capitalism is very different than Norway’s and Japan’s and Canada’s and ours. Many countries’ form of capitalism is steered not by an unseen hand, but by clear government policy.

Now imagine a new type of capitalist economy that is geared toward maximizing human well-being and fulfillment. These goals and GDP would sometimes go hand-in-hand. But there would be times when they wouldn’t be aligned. For example, an airline removing passengers who had already boarded a plane to maximize its profitability would be good for capital but bad for people. So would a drug company charging extortionate rates for a life-saving drug. Most Americans would agree that the airline should simply accept the lost revenue and the drug company should accept a moderate profit margin. What if this idea was repeated over and over again throughout the economy?

Call it Human-centered Capitalism, or Human Capitalism for short.

Human Capitalism has a few core tenets:

Humanity is More Important Than Money
The Unit of an Economy is each Person, not each Dollar
Markets Exist to Serve Our Common Goals and Values

There’s a saying in business that “what gets measured gets managed for.” We need to start measuring different things.

The concept of GDP and economic progress didn’t even exist until the Great Depression. It was invented so that the government could figure out how bad the economy was getting and how to make it better. Economist Simon Kuznets, upon introducing GDP to Congress in 1934 remarked that “Economic welfare cannot be adequately measured unless the personal distribution of income is known. And no income measurement undertakes to estimate the reverse side of income, that is, the intensity and unpleasantness of effort going into the earning of income. The welfare of a nation can, therefore, scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income as defined above.” It’s almost like he saw income inequality and bad jobs coming.

Our economic system must shift to focus on bettering the lot of the average person. Capitalism has to be made to serve human ends and goals, rather than have our humanity subverted to serve the Marketplace. We shape the system. We own it, not the other way around.

In addition to GDP and job statistics, the government should adopt measurements like:

Median Income and Standard of Living
Levels of engagement with Work and Labor Participation Rate
Health-adjusted life expectancy
Childhood Success Rates
Infant mortality
Surveys of National Well-being
Average Physical Fitness and Mental Health
Quality of Infrastructure
Proportion of Elderly in Quality Care
Human Capital Development and Access to Education
Marriage Rates and Success
Deaths of Despair / Despair Index / Substance Abuse
National Optimism / Mindset of Abundance
Community Integrity and Social Capital
Environmental Quality
Global Temperature Variance and Sea Levels
Re-acclimation of Incarcerated Individuals and Rates of Criminality
Artistic and Cultural Vibrancy
Design and Aesthetics
Information Integrity / Journalism
Dynamism and Mobility
Social and Economic Equity
Public Safety
Civic Engagement
Cybersecurity
Economic Competitiveness and Growth
Responsiveness and Evolution of Government
Efficient Use of Resources

It would be straightforward to establish measurements for each of these and have them updated periodically, similar to what Steve Ballmer set up at USAFacts.org. Everyone could then see how we’re doing and be galvanized around improvement.

Human Capitalism will reshape the way that we measure value and progress, and help us redefine why we do what we do. It’s time to build an economy that makes people’s lives better. The market must serve us, not the other way around.