Andrew Yang is launching a nonprofit to make universal basic income a reality


Andrew Yang's $1,000 promise may be coming to a town near you.
The entrepreneur is following his failed 2020 bid with a nonprofit dedicated to bringing his signature campaign promise to life, Yang announced Thursday. Humanity First will turn one New York town into a testing ground for the universal basic income Yang constantly promised during his run, along with other initiatives that make the nonprofit basically an extension of Yang's campaign.
In a beta version of Yang's so-called "freedom dividend," Humanity First — a name borrowed from one of Yang's campaign slogans — will give $500,000 to a to-be-determined town in the form of $1,000-per-month checks for each resident. Also on Humanity First's list is a "data dividend" program that will use its funds to protect people's data privacy rights.
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The funding for the UBI initiative comes from venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and even a professional poker player, as well as some anonymous donors, The New York Times reports. So far, Humanity First has received $3 million in pledges to make the UBI pilots work. "My hands were tied as a political candidate to some extent," Yang told the Times, so now he has a chance to "get to work" and actually give his policies a whirl.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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