How President Yang Solved Everything by 2032
March 2032: To say that we needed a younger President who understood the value of tech, Latin workers, and hard work seems a vast understatement now that our Country has not only cut carbon emissions in half and achieved full-employment, but is now running a half-trillion a year budget surplus.
The 2024 primaries were hotly contested in both parties…an aging, maniacal (and way over-tanned) Donald Trump narrowly survived a challenge from Liz Cheney, who sought to “normalize” the Republican Party. The Democrats were torn between re-electing nice-guy Joe Biden (who was showing signs of senility and needed an aid-assisting ear-piece to get through the debates), aging lefty Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and a few upstarts. Though Biden had just finished a successful four-years of returning some decency and normalcy to our society, many feared that he lacked the stamina and vision to take us further. Yang was highly relatable, but many didn’t quite understand his tech vision for the Country. Fortunately for the U.S., Biden and Warren split the primary votes and Yang barely won the nomination. In the general election, Trump’s nuttiness-turned-to-violence turned off many voters, and Yang narrowly won the electoral vote while getting 15 million more popular votes. Trump (now 85) is contested the results to this day, from a padded-cell in Mar-a-Lago.
At the time, we knew Yang was good but didn’t realize how good. He seemed to conjure up the spirit of FDR, reminding us that we were in a “do or die” economic struggle with China, on which the fate of the world depended. He quickly defined the problems: 1) The need for better medical, electronic, defense, energy and transportation tech that could compete on the world stage, 2) The need to pull the Western Hemisphere/Europe/Australasia together as an economic production zone, 3) Using the relatively cheap labor of Latin America to make widgets, while having them assembled by the higher wage/more educated Countries close to markets, 4) Putting all people to work, and having many of their benefits (including education) tied to this work, 5) Realizing that Russia/China were trying to divide us, and thus creating an information/trade “firewall” between us and them, 6) developing a “National Service” to create a sense of purpose and unity among Americans, 7) creating reasonable entitlements and a robust economy that could pay down the National Debt, and 8) creating a reasonable safety net for workers, while restoring sensible taxation on Corporations and the rich. When asked about “multiculturalism”, Yang famously quipped “I’m not sure what that is, but I do know that integrated employment kicked butt on the racist workforces of Japan and Germany in WW II”, and he was right as African Americans worked in shipyards, bombs were made in Veracruz (recall “La Bamba”), and women welded in aircraft factories while the xenophobic Axis powers ran out of workers/lost a war of attrition. In this and other matters, Yang seemed to ride above the previous pettiness and acrimony of politics.
In January 2025, Yang wasted no time getting the future tech “captains of industry” together. He redefined a Presidential “cabinet” with a “hands-on” approach, while allowing these wealthy/competent people free-reign. Some of his appointees were:
a) Bill Gates as minister of energy. Due to much-increased electricity demand (due to diminished use of natural gas), Gates had to work fast. He refurbished existing nuclear power plants with “next generation” technologies, while greatly increasing offshore wind and perovskite solar, and building an extensive HVDC network (to share renewable power). He began “phasing-out” natural gas, by growing a hydrogen industry and employing carbon capture on any burned natural gas. He implemented a carbon tax to favor these new industries
b) Elon Musk as minister of transportation-Musk quickly set about a plan to fill the roads with electric smart cars and charging stations, while developing tube and tunnel systems for regional mass transit. He also began work on a “space elevator” which could make regular trips to the moon feasible (important for mining and energy, as we shall see)
c) Jeff Bezos as minister of production and shipping. Like him or not, Bezos had the brains and muscle to tie these vast networks of production and shipping together. Typically, an automotive part might be built in Brazil, from raw materials shipped from Canadian mines, after which the part would be shipped to Alabama for assembly as a car. The car might then be shipped to market in Europe, and at the end of it’s life shipped back to a recycling facility in Peru, and soon the cycle would start again.
d) Dr. Sanjay Gupta as minister of medicine-Gupta saw the need to ramp up research in vaccine development (as we were now on our 3rd pandemic since 2020), and bring down overall medical costs. He sought to shorten vaccine turnaround to 6 months for most viruses, plus targeted a vaccine for most forms of cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. He began streamlining medicines, simplifying procedures and lowering costs.
e) Bill Maher as minister of culture-This was thought at first to be a joke, but soon people saw the importance of this post. Under Maher, many drugs and “naughty things” became legal, and soon “taking away the naughty” also “took away the crime”, as most now had meaningful jobs so things like pot became more like occasional medicine. Maher made comedy on campuses acceptable again, and created reasonable, achievable standards for victimization and political correctness-a sort of “sticks and stones” approach that worked. Soon, whiners packed their bags and moved to Botswana, a Country set-aside specifically for whining. Maher (an atheist), was sympathetic to church/state separation, yet he passed a rule that tax-free religious entities actually had to be religious (believe in a deity and not incite violence) or be shipped to south Florida, a zone set aside for gun-packing religious zealots.
f) Amy Klobuchar as minister of National Service-It was not easy to create a National Service (two years of either military, conservation corps, or inner-city community building which resulted in skill-building and a promise of a free-education after) but Klobuchar was the one for the job, as EVERYONE LIKES AMY KLOBUCHAR.
g) Knowing the strength of American culture, Yang picked J Lo and LeBron James to be both cultural ambassadors and public relations directors, primarily for the Afro-Latin populations of the Caribbean and Latin America.
h) Alice Waters as agriculture minister-Waters understood more than anyone the need to change our diets to a more fruit & veggie/less meat and grain thing. In so doing, she sought to revolutionize agriculture as a less-tillage, more cover-crop, more hothouse/aquaponics type of enterprise. There were still cows, chickens and fish, but more likely to be grown aside integrated hothouses, that made use of their fertilizers and humane end-of-life product.
i) Michelle Obama as minister of civility. Under the highly-respected former first-lady, we could dissent, but had to do so civilly and graciously. If not, we were shipped to upper-Manitoba (near Hudson Bay), an area where people could scream and yell all they wanted (as no one could hear them).
j) Robert Reich as minister of economics-Reich realized the need for greater taxes on corporations and the rich, a greater safety net (especially medical) for the workers, and reasonable entitlement reform. He also raised interest rates to reasonable levels, restored balance to stocks/bonds, and started paying down national debt, with this new roaring economy.
k) Pete Buttigieg-Buttigieg became a sort of all-purpose troubleshooter, for “none of the above” items, as he just always seems to have things under control.
l) Julian Castro conjured up the spirit of “Stand and Deliver”’s Jaime Escalante, while revitalizing America’s education system.
m) Larry Ellison (Oracle founder) head of a newly-formed space-based defense system. This may have started out as a joke or bet between Yang and Maher, to see if we really could build a “Jewish Space-Laser”. Nevertheless, Ellison did a fine job bringing Silicon Valley know-how to space electronics and laser systems.
Soon, most people in the U.S. were at work, many at the new $12/hr minimum wage with a guaranteed basic health plan, others in the National Service, and many more using their education to do research or high-end assembly. Latin American wages stabilized at around $6/hr (with a very basic medical/pension plus similar free education opportunities) which was ok since their cost of living was lower (this wage was also competitive with India and China’s $7/hr and no benefits). Latin American drug gangs and corruption were held in check, since these new jobs provided the tax base for better protections, plus Maher had made most drugs legal anyway, and most Americans now grew their own. The defense industry used Gates’/Musk’s/Ellison’s/Bezos’ improved tech/supply chains to revolutionize space-based weapons, so that we now had a 100% effective missile-shield. Soon, much of our solar energy was coming from space, and rare-earths/precious metals were coming from the moon. Thanks to Dr. Gupta, many diseases were under control at a reasonable price, while Waters helped sustainably grow food for diets that prevented most illnesses. Reich made sure that future generations could afford all this new tech, while Klobuchar gave our youth hopes of escaping poverty and building a better world. Maher/Obama/Buttigieg made sure that we interacted sensibly and politely, while Bezos made sure all products got there on time.
President Yang turned out to be that rare individual that not only saw the future, but had the people skills to make sure it all happened. As a result of all this, China (by now racked with internal dissent over free-speech suppression and rich/poor disparity while losing business to Yang’s “Western Alliance of Learned/Latinos” or W.A.L.L.) decided to give autonomy to the South China Sea, Taiwan, Tibet, and other oppressed areas, in exchange for inclusion into Yang’s new “Federation of Integrated Regenerated Earthlings” or F.I.R.E. F.I.R.E. sought mutual cooperation with any future aliens encountered. Yang quickly combined these two groups into “F.I.R.E.W.A.L.L.”, which made people feel safe, was good marketing, and quickly made Yang their first president, commencing Jan. 20th 2033. Let’s hope Yang successor Pete Buttigieg can win the election against Ivanka Trump (who believes in 50' Mexican/Canadian walls, a resurgent coal economy, and a Chinese-made “Ivanka-Boutique” line of beauty products…if she’s elected it may send all the steadily-built Yang blocks a tumblin’).
Funny also, that when sights were set high and everyone put aside their differences (and conspiracy theories), there were plenty of jobs for everyone (and border/immigration issues kind of faded into the past). Did the “captains of industry” involved make money? Of course, in the same way that Ford, General Motors, Kaiser, Pratt-Whitney, GE, Lockheed, and Boeing made money during WW II, but with near-full employment, a benefit safety-net, and accomplished goals of putting tech on the right track, facing down international threats, and getting a robust economy to start paying down debt. In fact, Gates, Bezos, Musk, and Ellison next started a kind of philanthropic competition, plunging their profits into further good causes, at no government cost.
After all this, there were some individuals who were still not happy, yet not whiners, violently religious, or disrespectful. They were sent (along with Lindsay Graham) to a colony in Tasmania.
