Yang Visits Oskaloosa, Striking Up A Conversation
2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang greets individuals at Statemen Lanes on Saturday, January 4th, 2020.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The whistlestop phase of the 2020 Iowa Caucus is underway.
Andrew Yang, who is a Democrat candidate for President, is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and lawyer.
The 44-year-old Yang is the founder of Venture for America, which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on creating jobs in struggling American cities.
” I love being in places like bowling alleys because I love small businesses. I was an entrepreneur myself,” Yang said to interested individuals at Statesmen Lanes on January 4th, 2020. “It’s getting harder and harder to run and operate a small business today. I know that because I’m a numbers guy. The numbers show very clearly that we’re closing more businesses than we’re starting. Rates of business formation are lower than they have ever been for young people in particular.”
“These are some of the reasons why I knew that we needed to do better for the next generation, Yang added. “We’re leaving them an economy that doesn’t work for them. Education [has] just gotten more and more expensive. While health care costs and housing costs are creeping up.”
How many of y’all are parents like me?” Yang asked those in attendance. “If you’re a parent, you had this sinking feeling that it’s going to be harder for our kids to live the American dream than it even was for us.”
“If you were born in this country in the 1990s, you’re down to a 50/50 shot of doing better than your parents. That number was 93% 50 years earlier,” said Yang. “That was the American dream. My family came here to find the American dream. [It] worked for my family, but it is not working for too many Americans. That is what we have to change right here in Iowa in 30 short days.”
“This is a chance for us to recapture our government and make it work for us, to get to the top of DC and then rewrite the rules,” Yang said to those in attendance. “DC today is the richest city in our country.”
“We have to make it so that DC works for us and not the other way around,” added Yang.
As Yang prepared to bowl a few frames, three Oskaloosa High School Students were at the scoring table, waiting for an opportunity to learn more about Yang.
OHS student Maddie Hamilton said she’s a Bernie Sanders fan, but says that she’s concerned about Sanders’s health.
Hamilton will be eligible to vote in November’s election and was intrigued by Yang’s proposed universal income. “He’s really big on equality for all, and I think that’s really important in today’s climate.
One of the OHS students was curious about where the money was going to come from for the proposed universal income and other social programs.
