Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, "I'm Asian, so you know I love to work," in response to a question about his proposed universal basic income.
"Final question, and this is another concern people have, look, when you work, you get more out of it than money. You get self-esteem, you get social interaction. It does a lot of things, and some people are concerned that with your, in effect, 12,000 a year handout that your de-linking income from actually earning a living," Wallace said.
"Well I'm Asian, so you know I love to work," Yang replied. "You have to be a little bit broader about how you think about work. My wife is at home with our two young boys, one of whom has autism. What is the market value of her work at right now? At zero, and we know that's the opposite the truth. We know the work she's doing is among the most challenging and vital work in our society. So we need to think bigger about what we mean by work.
"But most Americans know that putting a bit of money into your hands is going to make you work harder in many contexts and it's certainly not going to take someone who wants to work and say I'm going to kick back and, because a thousand dollars a month is not enough to thrive in any environment," Yang continued.
Yang has played up his Asian heritage in the past.
In May, he told an audience that "the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math!"
According to Real Clear Politics polling average, Yang is currently polling in seventh place in the Democratic primary just behind Robert Francis 'Beto' O'Rourke, but ahead of Sen. Cory Booker (D., NJ) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., NY).