The War on Normal People

Yang’s central book, and the intellectual engine of his 2020 campaign. He argues that automation and AI are not a distant threat but a present one, already hollowing out retail, manufacturing, trucking and clerical work, the ordinary jobs most Americans actually hold. Rather than pretend these jobs are coming back, he proposes a Freedom Dividend: a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for every adult, funded to give people a floor, a measure of security, and the freedom to adapt. Data-heavy and blunt about what is coming.