NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
Washington, D.C., December 26, 2024: Vivek Ramaswamy, a member of incoming President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Excellence (DOGE), sparked a fiery debate on Thursday with a controversial post on X, formerly Twitter, supporting the H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign workers, including those from India. His remarks, which critiqued aspects of American culture, drew backlash from Trump supporters and rival Republican figure Nikki Haley.
Ramaswamy’s post addressed what he described as a cultural shift in the U.S. that prioritizes mediocrity over excellence, suggesting it impacts the nation’s ability to produce top-tier engineers.
“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit,” Ramaswamy wrote. “It comes down to culture… A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”
“(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates),” he said.
“More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.” Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn.”
“If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve. Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest. “Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.”
He called for a reevaluation of American values, urging a return to prioritizing achievement and hard work over conformity and “normalcy.”
The post struck a nerve among Trump loyalists, who oppose the H-1B visa program, seeing it as a threat to American jobs. Haley, a fellow Indian American and former South Carolina governor, responded sharply, defending the American workforce.
“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have,” Haley wrote on X. “We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”
Another MAGA loyalist, Amanda Louise further expanded on the debate, pointing out the legal and ethical flaws in his assertions. She argued that his claim inadvertently acknowledges illegal practices under U.S. law, specifically the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which prohibits companies from displacing qualified American workers for subjective reasons such as perceived cultural differences. Suggesting that companies bypass American workers for their foreign-born counterparts due to superior “cultural values” implies a violation of federal law.
She said the preference for foreign workers is less about cultural superiority and more about cost-cutting and control. Employers often exploit visa programs like H-1B to hire temporary workers who are paid less and whose employment terms can be manipulated. This undermines both American and foreign workers, turning the job market into a battleground of exploitation rather than a meritocracy.
Louise also took issue with Ramaswamy’s portrayal of American culture, pointing out that the U.S. has long been a global leader in technology and innovation, producing icons like Steve Jobs and Grace Hopper. Far from being a bastion of mediocrity, American culture has fostered the dynamism and creativity that built Silicon Valley and the tech ecosystem he now critiques.
She said blaming American culture, critics contended, Ramaswamy’s comments effectively give corporations a justification to displace American workers under the guise of cultural inadequacies, allowing them to obscure their profit-driven motives. This narrative, they said, fails to hold employers accountable for their misuse of visa programs and instead shifts the blame onto American families, students, and workers who are most affected by these exploitative practices.
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024
