Book by Andrew Yang.

Just like Ruby Payne's book on poverty, and J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, this book does an excellent job of teaching us about what poverty and hopelessness due to a "normal" person's abilities to cope - financial stress has been proven to even LOWER IQ by 13 full points...

Unfortunately, Yang backs up his rather dark message with facts, figures and trends. It's a troubling read.

But as housing providers, we need this info to plan ahead. Especially those of you in states where so many of your main professions can either be outsourced or replaced by automation or AI (which is coming, and fast.) RETAIL, TRUCKING, BACK OFFICE CLERICAL, even lawyers and doctors are on the hit list.

You mean the candidate Andrew Yang who just squirted whipped cream into the mouths of kneeling supporters and allowed that to be video taped and broadcast? Yeah. Anything he says in that book is suspect as he is a political candidate. He is not stupid and I am sure he could make any statistics lie in his favor. Poverty causes stress indeed. I have been so poor that I didn't know if I could afford a bottle of ketchup. I did have back up, living parents, in case things got too bad. Some people have no backup. I doubt if "IQ points drop". Increased adrenalin probably forces some quick decisions that might not be the best. The most immediate issue for LLs is what are the Dems going to do with all the homeless they have created in the streets? Instead of opening up some empty buildings and putting in cots, they are talking about housing vouchers and THIS MEANS YOU. Nice try on the political ad.

The full title being--

The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future

As we know, more and more people are moving from disappearing (manufacturing, retail) jobs to disability (SSI and SSDI.) People who go on disability are on it for life. We are funding it whether we like it or not.

It was an invitation to explain. ;) I'll pick it up from the library the next time I'm that way, but I'm currently working on "A Daughter of the Samurai" (an autobiography from a girl who was a child at the tail end of the Bakumatsu period, and trying to get 5k words churned out for Mystery Anthology A before tomorrow and another 5k words churned out for SciFi Anthology B after that. (Which is totally why I'm procrastinating over here...)

It's interesting, because over the last 20 years I've been paying attention, so many of the skilled trades have been neglected, in terms of encouraging high school students to consider them for their career paths. Instead, pretty much everyone who can afford it has been pushed towards the college track--- and even then, a lot of them actually can't afford it, because tuition rates have skyrocketed, and they're now saddled with massive debt and worthless degrees. Some of the degrees are worthless because they're not really marketable skills--- it doesn't make much sense to pay $100k for a degree that only gets you a $30k/year job. And other degrees are theoretically practical, but end up getting outsourced to people who will work for slave-labor-salaries on other continents, and they can't compete with that.

But my carpenter will never get outsourced. My plumber or electrician will never get mechanized. My CHA guy will never be replaced by a robot.

So, without having gotten to the library yet, my attitude going towards it would be--- "Why not de-stigmatize the Trades, and teach people the skills they need to succeed that way?" It won't solve all problems for all people--- but pretty much half of America's skilled tradesmen are at or nearing age 60.

How much of your income will you be happy with surrendering so lazy bums and scammers can live off it?

50%? 75%? 100%?

After all, they need it more than you do, they say.

Programs like this socialist whacko suggest will take all of your income.

Companies pay nothing because they have nothing left and they have no profits. If Amazon pays no taxes then they are just making it financially.

What would happen with a Universal Basic Income is that no one would do any work at all and scramble to live only on that. It would encourage theft and other nefarious activities like selling illegal items to make some additional income. We know that happens because Welfare is not quite enough and people go out and steal cars and mug people to get a little extra so mom can have her hair done or whatever. Well, some people would still work but you would have to wait your own table, and get your own pizza and numerous other things.

We already have over 80 programs to help the "poor".

- That's why the "poor" don't work - they make more in benefits than if they worked at minimum wage. They are not included in the unemployment figures.

- That's why single mothers keep spitting out new mouths. The more, the more better.

- That's why students stay in schools and bounce from school to school, from major to major till they reach retirement.

- That's why we have 30 -50 million illegals, after all they were told USA is the land of the free.

When I was a young single mother and "on benefits" I worked as a waitress back in the day when I could hide my cash tips. Why? Because if I had gotten a so-called better job I would have lost medical care for my kids.

It's the same today: we penalize those who strive to do better by kicking them off safety net programs if they earn a dollar too much. Literally a dollar.

Same thing is true with healthcare subsidies. Make $XX, get full subsidy. Make $X1, lose it all and pay $$$$$$$ more to keep your care. WAY more than that dollar more you made. Stupid.

If you think the coming so-called "4th" Industrial Revolution won't change things for you that's fine. But as a Landlord, I think it will. It already has. EVERY DAY we bemoan the lack of qualified candidates, EVERY DAY.

When you read how the employment figures are being calculated, you will see that those on disability are not counted, those who gave up looking for work are not counted. That's a LOT of people these days.

If my understanding is correct, the $1000 per month would be INSTEAD of other benefits, AND would go to ALL adults, even the one percenters. This is roughly what Italy and Denmark (? ) were testing out, as they had very few people creating new jobs because ‘benefits’ were too good. So, to encourage entrepreneurs while maintaining a safety net, the universal basic income was created. Problem is, many entrepreneurs succeed ONLY because they ‘dig deep enough’ and have hit rock bottom. Universal basic income removes ‘ rock bottom’ for some. But, not for most. So, it will be interesting to see how universal basic income works in those countries trying it out.

Busy you are right (instead of other benefits) and you have to opt in. If you are making more on the dole, you wouldn't sign up for the FD. But if you are one of the working poor, $1k could make a real difference.

Deanna, what you wrote seems interesting and it would benefit me to inquire more

However, that would keep you from your work. So I must sit quietly.

CGB, Overall, sure. However if you gave universal health care, you would be forced to shut down your borders. In that you would not be able to provide health care for anyone entering your nation.

To your point, some time ago when they had a bail-out, people would say " It would of been better if you had given every citizen a million dollars..." (Few people ever questioned these statements because nobody had a calculator which would correctly do the math).

You are right, if you gave ten people a million dollars that money would be worth something, but if 310 million people all got the million dollars....no one person would stand out.

Another fun tidbit. People complain that it costs more to make a penny than a penny is worth. Sounds funny, sounds good.

However it is totally stupid. I have pennies on the desk from 1978, 1966, even some Wheat Pennies.....They all work just as good as the day they were new. My 1978 cars are all gone, bicycles are still here but need work.

So, if you like your current benefits, you can keep your current benefits? Hmmm...

I don't know, as I work my way through this book I am more and more convinced he is on to something.

He points out that our society - our GDP - does not assign value to things like SAHMs. Our unemployment rates don't take into account the 49 year old manufacturing employee who got laid off, can't find another job with his skill set and is NOT going to train to be a "coder." They don't take into effect that same guy ending up on disability with a "Bad Back."

GDP was created in WWII and apparently has always been a terrible way of measuring our success as a nation. I never knew some of the things he points out.

The SAT was created to keep the smart kids off the front lines in WWII. I never knew that either.

Timely information this morning:

A pair of new studies have revealed worrying trends in the ongoing opioid epidemic. One study found that closing an automotive plant in a given American county has been associated with 85% higher opioid overdose death rates in that county after five years. That shows a strong link between economic hardship, feelings of depression and fatal drug use.

Plenty, my son sent me the book via Kindle. So of course I was going to read it. And it's a very dystopian view of the world to come, but I can't say he's wrong in many of his conclusions.

I briefly sold insurance over 50 years ago. In considering applicants for life insurance, the company would get the credit report of the applicant. This was in the days before "credit scores".

Statistics showed that bad credit record for an individual was reflected in shorter lifespan.

People who can't pay an unexpected bill live in a state of constant stress.

Not everyone who is poor is s t u p i d. Poor people often manage their money better than rich people do. They just don't have enough of it. The "Working Poor" is a real thing. We all know them and they are not all i d i o t s.

As Landlords, we see some odd ducks, more than our fair share which tends to taint our outlook. But there are a huge number of so-called "normal people" living on the edge every day. Wages have been totally stagnant for decades outside of the Bubble Zones of Silicon Valley and Washington DC.

The gains in the stock market only work for those who have money in the stock market, which is apparently much rarer than I realized.

The new jobs that are being created are not going to the 49-year old trucker, but to kids fresh out of college with advanced degrees...and even they are drowning in debt. Most can't afford to live where the jobs are!

If anything, it would likely be the ASVAB that was created to ‘keep the smart kids off the front lines.’ But, that actually makes very good sense. We often just assume that when someone is smart, they are the best at everything ............ . But, nope, there are many kinds of ‘ best person for the job’, and that is what the ASVAB was designed to ferret out.

I know someone in one of the very high tech jobs the Army has. Needed top scores to get into that job. One of the complaints that higher-ups have about those brainiacs? They don’t want to just follow orders, they want to think for themselves. And they often think ( and know,) they have a better way to do something. So, making kids like that soldier into a front line soldier would be a really good way to lose a war, because the brainiacs will second guess officers. Yet not following orders, but doing things the ‘right way’ can and has been mission critical in his job, and probably a few other high tech jobs, where the brainiacs know more about the equipment than the officer issuing orders. As part of the training, the high-tech wizards were trained to follow orders from their training, not from random officers. A lot different than standard soldier training.

AllyM, I had my wars wrong. But deep in the history of the SAT I found this:

"How did the Educational Testing Service (ETS) become such an influential organization?

In the early going, ETS was broke because many colleges hadn't required the SAT yet. And that took a long time to get them on board. It also had cash flow problems. They needed ways to make money. And the big thing that saved them in the early years was they got a big contract from the Selective Service Administration to run a test during the Korean War for college students that would defer them from the draft.

There was a huge fight going on in the country at the time over who should serve in the military. Conant, who as you know was obsessed with making this a classless society, was the leading proponent of the idea that everybody should have to serve. He was for universal service. General Hershey, the head of the draft bureau, was for administering a test to college students and saying to the high scorers, "You can stay in college. You don't have to serve at the front lines."

There were a lot of reasons for this, but one was a kind of Cold War reason. That what if the person who's going to be our Werner Von Braun, the person who's going to invent the next great military weapon gets killed in a trench somewhere? You can't have that. So Hershey got the idea of giving essentially an IQ test to all college students and the high scorers would not have to go to Korea.

Well it turned out that America hadn't gotten used to this system yet. This is 1951. It was wildly unpopular. People said, "Hey wait a minute! You're going to give this IQ test to college kids and people who have high IQs don't have to fight for their country? Let the poor and the dumb go fight? Keep these guys out of the line of fire? No way!" So there was a blizzard of controversy. Editorial cartoons, radio commentary, it was very, very unpopular.

So Chauncey had to sort of go out and sell America on this test and kind of quiet all the storms. And he did that very, very effectively. He ran the test with his usual administrative skill and the test made a huge profit for ETS and sort of got it through its initial crisis financially. And by the time they ran through that money they had been adopted by enough colleges that they could make money from operations.

It was a key moment for ETS, it was a key moment for America, because it sold the idea of putting people who get high IQ scores into a separate category where they get special treatment."

Well there's something to be said for that. Except not all high-IQ people use their genius for good. Some are psychopaths.

W,

Congrats on staying curious and looking forward!

As LLs we MUST adapt as our society and govt change.

I spent 4 years in the third grade.....

is that normal now a days or was I just ahead of my time?

By the 6th grade I was the most popular kid in the class. I was the only one who had my drivers license.

In my senior year I asked my English teacher out to the prom..........I liked younger woman.

Thanks for the book recommendation, WMH. Several people have recommended learning more about Yang and his ideas. I think I'll do that.

Re the SATs, I have recent personal experience with them when my daughter was applying for college. I don't know how they operated when you were there, Ally, but they are a scam today. They sell you an expensive test which you are required to take to apply to the college you want to attend, then sell you expensive courses to teach you how to get a better score on their test, then try to sell you on spending even more money to take the test again. It's all a money-grubbing operation. I wonder how much the CEO of this "non-profit" makes every year?

CDm, I laugh about those expensive test prep classes. Back in the day, I took the ACT, never took a prep course, but scored higher than the guy who as valedictorian of our class, slightly lower than the salutatorian ( good friends of mine.) Both of them had taken prep classes. I grew up on a farm, though I am no great scholar, my upbringing really taught me to think for myself. Raised my kids that same way, they also scored well, without any prep classes.

I didn’t think the prep classes were associated with either the ACT or SAT, that those are separate vendors. Just looking to make a buck off of parents who failed to teach their kids to be independent thinkers.

Are there things in our US history that aren’t perfect, such tests that determined if someone was allowed to vote? Sure. As a Hmong gentleman, Mr. Yang surely knows that. I am certain he is well aware of the sacrifice the Hmong people made on behalf of the US in our illegal war in Cambodia. But, to move forward, we need to stand on that past history, become stronger for it, and move forward, rather than become victims of it.

Because of the Hmong connection, my daughter has been watching Andrew Yang. He does have some good points. The title of this book turns me off though. I’ve become so weary of people wanting to be victims. There is no ‘war’ on normal people. It takes sacrifice, discipline, courage to succeed, just like it always has. In other words, step out of ‘ comfort zone’ and make things happen. Mr.Yang may be doing that, but, the unfortunate title of the book implies victims all around. ( in my limited viewpoint.)

As a landlord, I won’t rent to applicants with a ‘victim’ mentality. It is much talked about in landlord circles that someone who blames the past landlord for troubles doesn’t make a good tenant. We landlords know we don’t have a’war on tenants’ yet, to read some media articles, one would think so.

My next book: The War on Landlords

Busy, I actually agree about the title! But hey sex sells so I *understand* the title. As Yang himself says, this is how Trump WON and he is aiming to do just that.

The facts in the books are hard to deny though.

yang is not a libertarian, he and his ilk rely on force to compel those who disagree with them to comply or be jailed, fined or both. if your philosophy relies on force to achieve its goal it is illegitimate and is simply another brand of tyranny, and he really lost me at UBI. i cannot think of a better way to solidify the plantation mentality among the poor and further hammer their self esteem that derives of achievements large and small. a better idea is to STOP taxing anyone that does not make $50k a year. grant school vouchers to EVERYONE like sweden does (how 'bout that you lefties...sweden has universal vouchers), privatize some portion of social security, i can go all day. using just ONE of my clever ideas imagine if everyone who died had SOME SORT or estate cash left to bequeath to heirs. it would be a great way to give ALL families a leg up on building wealth. right now social security dies when they do. if they had a private account of some sort they would give their families that financial nudge that might be life changing. LBJ's war on poverty is over...poverty won because welfare is a dependence trade.

and YES those with higher IQ's should be considered as superior to those with lower IQ's, the outlier psycho's are no reason to dismiss the larger portion. we all know some really great folks that are just plain stupid. they make bad decisions as a rule and i can say i DO NOT want them having ANY say in my life. think beto o'rourke. nice guy i'm sure but i don't need ANY advice from him or his pals. i'll gladly surf and hunt with them but they are not the ones i want directing any part of my life. recently neil degrasse tyson made comments about the rarity of mass shootings and suggested that we were ignoring other FAR MORE PREVENTABLE deaths from heart disease, suicides, and other reasons. the dullards of the world went twitter-nuts and revealed their inability to think logically and demanded he apologize. they wanted an apology for having recited simple facts. most americans are too busy watching the kardashians and in my opinion are just dumb.