Andrew Yang Quotes

The system rewards activity and output over health improvements and outcomes.

Let’s take the case of US law schools as an example. If you were to say to someone educated, “There are too many law schools producing too many lawyers in the US,” she would probably agree, in part because there have been dozens of articles over the past several years about the precipitous drop in positions at law firms and the many unemployed law school graduates.9 The general response to this problem is, “Well, people will figure it out and eventually stop applying to law school,” the suggestion being that the market will clear and self-correct if given enough time. On the surface it looks like this market magic is now happening. In 2013, law school applications are projected to be down to about 54,000 from a high of 98,700 in 2004.10 That’s a dramatic decrease of 45 percent. However, a closer look shows that the number of students who started law school in 2011 and are set to graduate in 2014 was 48,697, about 43,000 of whom will graduate, based on historical graduation rates.11 We’ll still be producing 36,000–43,000 newly minted law school grads a year, not far from the peak of 44,495 set in 2012, from now until the current entering class graduates in 2016. Meanwhile, in 2011, only 65.4 percent of law school graduates got jobs for which they needed to pass the bar exam, and estimates of the number of new legal jobs available run as low as 2,180 per year.12 Bloomberg Businessweek has projected a surplus of 176,000 unemployed or underemployed law school graduates by 2020.13 So even as applications plummet, there will not be dramatically fewer law school graduates produced in the coming several years, though it will have been easier to get in as acceptance rates rise due to the diminished applicant pool.14 We’ll still be producing many more lawyers than the market requires, but now they’ll be less talented. If anything, the situation is going to get worse before it gets better. Human capital markets don’t self-correct very quickly, if at all. At a minimum there’s a

People were clapping us on the back, congratulating us on our accomplishments, and we were thinking to ourselves, What are you congratulating us for? The problems are just getting worse.

great. This is a good description of Rovio, which was around for six years and underwent layoffs before the “instant” success of the Angry Birds video game franchise. In the case of the Five Guys restaurant chain, the founders spent fifteen years tweaking their original handful of restaurants in Virginia, finding the right bun bakery, the right number of times to shake the french fries before serving, how best to assemble a burger, and where to source their potatoes before expanding nationwide. Most businesses require a complex network of relationships to function, and these relationships take time to build. In many instances you have to be around for a few years to receive consistent recognition. It takes time to develop connections with investors, suppliers, and vendors. And it takes time for staff and founders to gain effectiveness in their roles and become a strong team.* So, yes, the bar is high when you want to start a company. You’ll have the chance to work on something you own and care about from day to day. You’ll be 100 percent engaged and motivated, and doing something you believe in. You can lead an integrated life, as opposed to a compartmentalized one in which you play a role in an office and then try to forget about it when you get home. You can define an organization, not the other way around. But even if you quit your job, hunker down for years, work hard for uncertain reward, and ask everyone you know for help, there’s still a great chance that your new business will not succeed. Over 50 percent of companies fail within their first three years.2 There’s a quote I like from an unknown source: “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.

I support the freedom of parents to adopt circumcision for any religious or cultural ritual as desired. Actually have attended a brit milah myself and felt privileged to be there. Thanks Mikael. Always up to parents.

The future without jobs will come to resemble either the cultivated benevolence of Star Trek or the desperate scramble for resources of Mad Max.

Knowing what’s truly normal or average in a big country like America requires some work.

I learned a lot from the party business — it’s great training for running a business in general. Among the lessons I learned: • The default number of attendees is zero. You get out what you put in. • The personal touch is always best. If you write or call people individually they’ll come. • Don’t throw parties on Mondays or Tuesdays. • Choose your partners wisely. • The best way to get others to come to your party is to go to their parties. Reciprocity rules.* • It’s way easier to invite someone to a party and get them to come than it is to get a date with them. • Don’t save free drink tickets until the end of the night. Use them as soon as possible. • Nothing makes someone happier than skipping a line. • If a party gets too crowded, some people will leave. • When presented with an opportunity to be a jerk or let it go, let it go. • People get irrationally possessive and touchy about free gift bags. • If no one has shown up in the first hour, don’t worry — they’ll show. I got a great education and had some amazing times. If you want to throw a big party, give this a try — find a few people you like and respect but that you’re not that close friends with — people who have networks that are different from the ones you have. Convince them to cohost a party with you. If that works, you’ll be off to the races.

Capitalism has to be made to serve human ends and goals, rather than have our humanity subverted to serve the marketplace.

America is starting 100,000 fewer businesses per year than it was only 12 years ago, and is in the midst of shedding millions of jobs due primarily to technological advances.

We are getting better and better at things that will make large numbers of workers extraneous. And we will succeed. There needs to be a dramatic reskilling of the workforce, but that’s not going to be practical for a lot of people. It’s impossible to avoid a lost generation of workers.

All Bowser players are carried.

Upon joining Venture for America, we ask our fellows to adopt the following credo: My career is a choice that indicates my values. There is no courage without risk. Value creation is how I measure achievement. I will create opportunity for myself and others. I will act with integrity in all things.

There’s a big distinction between humans as humans and humans as workers. The former are indispensable. The latter may not be.

About one in six working-age men in America is now out of the workforce, one of the highest rates among developed countries.