If Andrew Yang, a million-to-one shot to win the Democratic nomination for president, rises into the national political mainstream, he’ll bring a Goffstown family along for the ride.
The Fassi family will be thrown into the mix as an example of how far $1,000 a month can go in the day-to-day life of an American Family. Yang believes this payment, called a freedom dividend, which has no strings attached, will reinforce capitalism, rather than create a dependent, nanny state. If he wins the White House, those 18 to 64 will be eligible for the $1,000 monthly payment.
The Fassis are Young’s case study, a great American story that he can relay at state campaign rallies and beyond. The story about a mother, Jodie Fassi, starting her own cleaning business, and a father, Chuck Fassi, who bounced back from unemployment and an emotional breakdown to rejoin the workforce and regain his dignity.
There’s also a daughter, Janelle Fassi, who’s working toward a college degree through grants, scholarships and, currently, that thousand bucks from Yang. She’s a 20-year-old sophomore at Saint Anselm College, studying communications and psychology. She calls the money, funneled at this point from Yang’s wallet, a different type of scholarship, and it’s forced the Fassis to rethink their primary vote.
To Yang’s point, the family isn’t using the money to buy a new BMW, or go on vacation to Europe. They are using it to pay for one of their biggest expenses – Janelle’s college tuition.
“So far Andrew has my support,” Jodie Fassi said during an interview at her home. “I want to listen to all the candidates and I love what he stands for, especially with Janelle being in college. I think $1,000 per person starting at age 18 would help. That extra income would be tremendous to help a common family like ours.”
Added Janelle, “He’s very down to earth and he took the time to get to know my family. He’s helped my family, helped me with college. He has two young kids. He’s a good family man.”
Add this to the list of perks we receive every four years as the nation’s first-in-the-nation primary. Candidates, some of the most powerful and richest people in the country, kiss our butts, transforming New Hampshire into a national story.
They also test the waters and gauge reactions, here and in Iowa, which hosts the nation’s first caucus. A winner of the Yang sweepstakes there hasn’t been named yet.
Here, the Fassis have emerged as early faces of his campaign.
Janelle met Yang last summer in Keene while interning in Concord for the New Hampshire Young Democrats. She heard about a candidate with progressive ideas, a man who claimed government payments to individuals would help the economy through increased spending and personal flexibility.
The money would come from a value-added tax, making it harder for giant corporations, many of which have cut staff thanks to technology, to hide income, and forcing them to pay their fair share, which in many cases is anything above zero.
“I heard there was a young Bernie appearing,” said Janelle, referring to Bernie Sanders.
Anyone could apply for the money, laying the foundation for a campaign strategy that included faces, people and stories. Janelle applied through email, explaining to Yang what her family had endured to reach their middle-class status.
Two decades ago, when Jodie was one-month pregnant with Janelle, she left her $10-an-hour cleaning job, believing she could build her own cleaning business.
To get there while also helping Chuck pay bills, she worked third shift stocking shelves at the Christmas Tree Shop, the 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. slot. Then she’d clean houses from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., building a customer base. Then she’d come home, sleep for a few hours, eat dinner with Chuck, go back to bed, then head back to the Christmas Tree Shop for her graveyard shift.
Now she’s got 10 to 12 clients and cleans a dentist’s office at night.
Husband Chuck said he was forced out of his job as a field service technician in Aug. of 2017, before the stress wore him down. He said he was suicidal. Collecting disability, he spent a week in the hospital, diagnosed with anxiety disorder, depression and bipolar.
“I felt defeated, like I
could not take care of my family,” Chuck told me. “Like I had no control over my livelihood anymore, no control over your destiny anymore. I didn’t feel like life was worth living.”
When he got home from the hospital, things were a mess. Their house was on the market, a real estate agent sitting in the kitchen. Jodie had found a buyer for their car.
“I was like, ‘Holy s, this is real,’ ” Chuck said. “It wasn’t fun.”
Plus, that same day Janelle had just left for Saint Anselm College, unpacking at her dorm, adjusting to her new life, worrying about her dad back in Goffstown.
“I felt like my happiness was taken away and I felt for my dad and wanted him to be okay,” Janelle said. “He was calling me and he was home alone and I felt guilty and my mom was working all day. I felt I could not have a normal college experience like most people appeared to be having.”
Two big events soon occurred: Chuck got a job in the same field and Janelle submitted recent events in her life to Yang. That’s the information that earned them $1,000 a month.
They’ve received two payments, including their first at a New Year’s Eve Party at a New York City club, hosted by Yang.
He’s of Taiwanese descent and started Venture for American, a nonprofit organization. He’s 43, lives in New York City, has a wife and two children – one of whom is autistic – and is pursing a goal that could be defined as a pipedream.
His platform is based on the ill effects of artificial intelligence, which has already shown its cruelty by hammering various job markets in the name of progress. Yang sees an economic disaster that will lead to a human disaster. He sees robots taking jobs. He sees retail dying. He sees self-driving vehicles, putting people out of work and sending America down the road to ruin.
If his campaign stays afloat, you’ll be hearing about his universal basic income plan. His campaign recently announced that Yang raised $250,000 from 14,000 donors in one week.
He still needs publicity to nudge his way into a heavyweight division that already includes Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and, perhaps later, Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg.
“I very much have a shot and voters in New Hampshire are smart and see what is happening,” said Yang, speaking by phone from his second home in Washington, D.C., his two young children clearly audible in the background. “We need to make big changes, and they know they can determine the future of their country and they take it very seriously.”
Now he’s got what he hopes will be a mouthpiece, a catchy, colorful political sign, a family of faces, whose every-day problems and stress is meant to touch you in some way.
The Fassis have certainly shown resourcefulness, but this is not a poor family, desperate for food. Their living room has housed a 20-foot Christmas tree, and they’ve got a nice TV in the family room. But they are very much an average American family and $1,000 means a lot to them.
Yang delivered the news by phone, directly to Chuck and Jodie, after planning with Janelle to call when she and her parents would be home.
“I said, ‘Oh, I think that is Andrew on the phone,” Janelle remembered.
She put Yang on speaker. “We have an early Christmas present for you,” he said.