That’s literally the only reason he was able to run for the presidency on his first major attempt to hold office… This is no slam on Yang as a person. It’s clear he seems genuinely interested in improving our society, so good for him. But why not start small, see what you can do on a county board or school board or as the mayor of a small to mid-sized town, and go from there?
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The one true king
Exactly.
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Some would run if they could, but are hampered by bone spurs.
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Remember all the handwringing about how Obama didn’t put in his dues even though he was a local community organizer, constitutional law professor, state senator, and US senator before running for president?
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All of which are with in the field that he’d be working in and entirely a suitable background for holding high public office. Andrew Yang ran a business. Apples and oranges.
Seriously. If we haven’t learned in the past four years that assuming business experience is just as good as the background as work in the public sector for high government office, then we’re well andn truly fucked. The neoliberal agenda will have succeeded in supplanting democracy. 
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If anything, I think business experience is a negative. A focus on profit and quarterly financial performance is not conducive to good governance. For example, who the fuck cares if it costs money to run the postal service? They perform an essential service to the general public. The government exists to provide the framework for a functional society, not to provide a healthy ROI to the parasitic donor class.
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FWIW he ran a non-profit. I’m very sincerely not sure if that’s better or worse though? It surely isn’t legislative experience. It would be good to see him tested with mid-sized city leadership. I think it’s too bad he didn’t try for a NH city. I think IIRC that’s where he’s mainly from? Pride I guess.
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That’s a good point. I was speaking kind of generally about businesspeople seeking elected office. I agree that a mid-sized city would be preferable, but I can see his logic in going for NYC - he has decent ties to the city via law school + work, there is some precedence by way of (shudder) Bloomberg, and the diverse demographics probably work in his favor. Win or lose, he does add a different perspective to the conversation.
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Still not the same are running an executive branch of the government, of course. And he also worked in a variety of other places other than non-profits, too. He started out as a lawyer, I believe?
Venture for America was the non-profit he ran? It seems to be a non-profit dedicated to entrepreneurship? It seems position itself as a job creation organization.
Right? This.
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I’m not going to say the whole thing was staged, because I don’t know that. But…
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