Andrew Yang's Silicon Valley friends predicted that the job displacement seen in manufacturing would extend to retail workers, fast food workers, and truck drivers.

“This claim accurately reflects the well-documented origin story of Andrew Yang's 2020 presidential campaign. His 2018 book, "The War on Normal People," details his concerns about automation after speaking with tech entrepreneurs. In numerous interviews from that period, such as one with Quartz in 2022 which references his earlier views, Yang explicitly stated, "My friends in Silicon Valley know that we're about to do the same thing to millions of retail workers, call center workers, fast food workers, truck drivers..." This narrative was the central and consistent justification for his campaign's focus on automation and Universal Basic Income. Context: This concern about automation-driven job loss was the central thesis of Yang's 2020 presidential platform, for which he proposed a Universal Basic Income (UBI), or "Freedom Dividend," as a primary solution.”