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The War on Normal People
The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 11, 2026
After reading this book (for the second time) I keep circling back to this quiet discomfort I cannot quite shake. It felt current. Uncomfortably current.
The more I look at the world, the more pro UBI I become. Not as charity. Not as a political talking point. As infrastructure.
Automation is accelerating. AI is already replacing or reshaping entire types of jobs, including white collar work people thought was safe. A small number of companies are capturing massive amounts of value. Meanwhile housing, childcare, healthcare, and education keep getting more expensive. Wages do not keep up. We tell people to learn new skills, pivot, hustle harder, while the rules keep changing. At some point, it feels unrealistic to expect the job market alone to fairly distribute all of the wealth being created...
UBI, to me, is not about paying people not to work. It is about giving people a stable floor. A guarantee that you are not one layoff or one medical bill away from ruin. It gives people breathing room. The ability to leave a toxic job. The ability to retrain. The ability to take a risk. The ability to care for a child or parent without financial freefall.
And if machines are producing more of the value in the economy, then it feels reasonable that everyone should share in that productivity. Technology did not materialize out of thin air. It was built on public investment, infrastructure, and collective knowledge. A universal dividend from that feels with reality.
This connects directly to Yang’s idea of human centered capitalism. Right now, our main scoreboard is GDP and corporate profit. If that is how we measure success, then of course we optimize for efficiency and scale. Of course we compress labor costs. Of course we reward speed over stability. The system is doing what it was designed to do.
But what if the scoreboard is incomplete?
Human centered capitalism asks whether people are actually thriving. Are families stable? Are children supported? Are communities functioning? Because if those are deteriorating while profits rise, something is off.
Childcare is the clearest example of this disconnect. We say children are our future. We talk constantly about human capital. Yet childcare is expensive, fragmented, and often treated as a private burden instead of shared infrastructure. If I pay for daycare, that shows up as economic activity. If a parent stays home and provides the same care, it disappears from the data. The work is real either way. The value is real either way. Only one version fits neatly into the measurement system.
Care work more broadly (raising kids, caring for aging parents, supporting a household, etc.) is foundational. Without it, there is no workforce. No innovation. No economy. And yet it is undervalued because it does not scale like software or produce quarterly earnings. That misalignment feels central.
If we truly believed that early childhood development, mental health, and family stability were high leverage investments, we would design policy and capital flows accordingly. UBI is one way to realign that. It does not solve childcare entirely, but it reduces the pressure. It gives families margin. It gives caregivers recognition in the form of financial autonomy.
I guess the real question feels simple... do we want a society where survival depends entirely on competing in a rapidly automating labor market? Or do we want a floor that reflects the fact that human beings have value beyond their job titles?
The economy is not neutral. We built it. We chose what to measure and what to reward. If we measure only output, we will get output. If we measure human well being, we might start designing differently.
So maybe the real question is this...
If the economy is already changing around us, are we brave enough to redesign the rules around what we believe a human life is actually worth?
The more I look at the world, the more pro UBI I become. Not as charity. Not as a political talking point. As infrastructure.
Automation is accelerating. AI is already replacing or reshaping entire types of jobs, including white collar work people thought was safe. A small number of companies are capturing massive amounts of value. Meanwhile housing, childcare, healthcare, and education keep getting more expensive. Wages do not keep up. We tell people to learn new skills, pivot, hustle harder, while the rules keep changing. At some point, it feels unrealistic to expect the job market alone to fairly distribute all of the wealth being created...
UBI, to me, is not about paying people not to work. It is about giving people a stable floor. A guarantee that you are not one layoff or one medical bill away from ruin. It gives people breathing room. The ability to leave a toxic job. The ability to retrain. The ability to take a risk. The ability to care for a child or parent without financial freefall.
And if machines are producing more of the value in the economy, then it feels reasonable that everyone should share in that productivity. Technology did not materialize out of thin air. It was built on public investment, infrastructure, and collective knowledge. A universal dividend from that feels with reality.
This connects directly to Yang’s idea of human centered capitalism. Right now, our main scoreboard is GDP and corporate profit. If that is how we measure success, then of course we optimize for efficiency and scale. Of course we compress labor costs. Of course we reward speed over stability. The system is doing what it was designed to do.
But what if the scoreboard is incomplete?
Human centered capitalism asks whether people are actually thriving. Are families stable? Are children supported? Are communities functioning? Because if those are deteriorating while profits rise, something is off.
Childcare is the clearest example of this disconnect. We say children are our future. We talk constantly about human capital. Yet childcare is expensive, fragmented, and often treated as a private burden instead of shared infrastructure. If I pay for daycare, that shows up as economic activity. If a parent stays home and provides the same care, it disappears from the data. The work is real either way. The value is real either way. Only one version fits neatly into the measurement system.
Care work more broadly (raising kids, caring for aging parents, supporting a household, etc.) is foundational. Without it, there is no workforce. No innovation. No economy. And yet it is undervalued because it does not scale like software or produce quarterly earnings. That misalignment feels central.
If we truly believed that early childhood development, mental health, and family stability were high leverage investments, we would design policy and capital flows accordingly. UBI is one way to realign that. It does not solve childcare entirely, but it reduces the pressure. It gives families margin. It gives caregivers recognition in the form of financial autonomy.
I guess the real question feels simple... do we want a society where survival depends entirely on competing in a rapidly automating labor market? Or do we want a floor that reflects the fact that human beings have value beyond their job titles?
The economy is not neutral. We built it. We chose what to measure and what to reward. If we measure only output, we will get output. If we measure human well being, we might start designing differently.
So maybe the real question is this...
If the economy is already changing around us, are we brave enough to redesign the rules around what we believe a human life is actually worth?
April 2, 2025
I think Andrew poses some good ideas. I like his ideas on changing education. We are paying way too much for an antiquated system that doesn't produce the skills or types of people we need. Also liked his ideas on healthcare. This is a broken, Byzantine area filled with inefficiencies and high costs. I like his push for keeping families together. Lots of data suggests how important this is. I also like his comprehensive plan. He is able to cover a lot of ground from tech to education to healthcare to policy.
While I believe with liberal leadership, we will get to universal guaranteed income, I am disappointed. Does anyone think it's ok to just give their kids money without working for it? It seems to send the wrong message. I don't believe AI will wipe out jobs. We will always need jobs to care for people, to teach people, to listen to people. They aren't truck driving jobs, but they are important jobs. I also disagree with his notion that geography is destiny. It's not. If you keep telling people it is, they will start to believe you. I feel like we need to get people out of their basements playing video games and get them to be responsible and accountable for their own lives. Teach them the things they need know to be a responsible adult and the expectation that they are to be self-sufficient. Just giving them money seems like it's going to continually keep them in the basement playing video games. Teach a person to fish rather than giving them fish.
While I believe with liberal leadership, we will get to universal guaranteed income, I am disappointed. Does anyone think it's ok to just give their kids money without working for it? It seems to send the wrong message. I don't believe AI will wipe out jobs. We will always need jobs to care for people, to teach people, to listen to people. They aren't truck driving jobs, but they are important jobs. I also disagree with his notion that geography is destiny. It's not. If you keep telling people it is, they will start to believe you. I feel like we need to get people out of their basements playing video games and get them to be responsible and accountable for their own lives. Teach them the things they need know to be a responsible adult and the expectation that they are to be self-sufficient. Just giving them money seems like it's going to continually keep them in the basement playing video games. Teach a person to fish rather than giving them fish.
March 3, 2024
Although I do not agree with him politically, I always found him an interesting candidate when he ran for president in 2020. His campaign was to slow AI production and have a universal basic income for every American citizen.
I wanted to learn why he thought these were pressing issues in America for Andrew.
His description and statistics on AI taking over the workforce, and how many people will be out of work on the coming years is intriguing.
Especially now in 2024, how Google, Disney, and many other businesses are planning on laying off their workers for AI.
Andrew explains how many American citizens will be forced to get a higher education as AI takes over the blue collar workforce.
Trucking is a line of work that Andrew believes will be hit hard. Considering 30% of work in the USA is shipping/ trucking work. Yet the technology to have self driving cars is already here. It’s just a matter of time.
His views on how things will play out and his ideas on how to fix things are definitely something to read for yourself.
I wanted to learn why he thought these were pressing issues in America for Andrew.
His description and statistics on AI taking over the workforce, and how many people will be out of work on the coming years is intriguing.
Especially now in 2024, how Google, Disney, and many other businesses are planning on laying off their workers for AI.
Andrew explains how many American citizens will be forced to get a higher education as AI takes over the blue collar workforce.
Trucking is a line of work that Andrew believes will be hit hard. Considering 30% of work in the USA is shipping/ trucking work. Yet the technology to have self driving cars is already here. It’s just a matter of time.
His views on how things will play out and his ideas on how to fix things are definitely something to read for yourself.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews