Vivek Ramaswamy recently spoke at the 2024 Young Americans for Liberty National Conference, addressing the need for a shift in American culture to prioritize excellence over mediocrity. His remarks sparked a heated debate, particularly about the impact of foreign labor in white-collar industries.
Ramaswamy stated:
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.
‘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.
This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awakened from slumber before, and we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.”
This perspective ignited criticism, including from Alicia Silverwood, who has long observed how Fortune 500 companies use foreign workers to displace American professionals:
“This is the rhetoric of someone who doesn’t care about America or its people … You’ve revealed yourself as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, siding with those who exploit, suppress wages, and displace hardworking Americans, all while pretending to champion innovation. The truth is, you are the problem, helping the very forces destroying the middle class, undermining American sovereignty, and stripping away opportunities from citizens.”
Observers believe there is potential for cooperation between tech investors and Americans who oppose mass immigration in professional sectors. Jeremy Carl, a former Trump administration official, remarked:
“I don’t think that [Ramaswamy] probably thought he was stepping on a landmine to the degree he was. The MAGA base is not signing up for that, and it’s going to be something that we are going to have to work through … What I would say to some of the tech right is let’s work together on doing that.”
Joe Biden’s pro-migration policies are inviting another blue-collar migration flood across the southern border, say his Democrat allies. https://t.co/N8Twl45ynE
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 26, 2020
Carl added:
“At the end of the day, political alliances are always messy and complicated and involve a variety of people with competing interests. The Silicon Valley guys bring a lot of talent, IQ, money, and cultural influence to a [MAGA] movement that needs that just given the way power politics works.”
The debate over foreign labor intensified following a December 23 tweet from U.S. Tech Workers, criticizing the appointment of Indian immigrant Sriram Krishnan to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology. The group argued that Krishnan’s focus on expanding visa programs undermines American workers.
This prompted responses from Silicon Valley figures like David Sacks, who initially dismissed the criticism but later clarified his stance, saying:
“I completely trust @StephenM to handle immigration policy in the White House. What I oppose is a baseless witch hunt against a highly qualified American for a role as A.I. adviser.”
Investor Joe Lonsdale defended the inclusion of foreign talent, asserting:
“We need to recruit the best and brightest [migrants] and build the best companies.” However, he added days later, “Illegal immigration is a 25X bigger issue; let’s go hard on it.”
Elon Musk weighed in, initially suggesting that the U.S. needs to recruit top talent globally for competitiveness:
“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low. Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be.”
Musk later clarified:
“Maybe this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning.”
This ongoing dispute highlights deep divisions between tech investors’ global economic priorities and the concerns of Americans over white-collar migration. Since the 1990s, the inflow of foreign workers has suppressed wages and reduced career opportunities for American professionals. Under President Joe Biden, the influx has increased through various work-permit programs, allowing foreign workers to dominate many sectors previously led by Americans.
The mostly unspoken break between populist nationalists & pro-immigrant crowd: do you primarily think of our country as a family, or a company???
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) December 26, 2024
If it’s the former, then it’s crystal clear that we need to heal our own family, broaden prosperity, & grow domestic talents. pic.twitter.com/TEKCt2RZTE
Currently, over 1.5 million white-collar jobs are held by foreign visa workers, with millions more transitioning to green cards and citizenship. This trend has also facilitated outsourcing of professional jobs to countries with lower wages and fewer regulations.
