New Delhi:
Vivek Ramaswamy, who is all set to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Elon Musk in the next Donald Trump administration, has given his views on hiring trends in the US tech sector. The former Republican presidential candidate's comment came amid an intense debate over Indian immigrants moving to the US and making it big.
Asking others to face the truth if they were “really serious about solving the problem,” Ramaswamy noted that American culture had “honored mediocrity over excellence for far too long (at least since the 1990s and probably longer). in college it starts YOUNG.”
“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over 'native' Americans is not because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy and erroneous explanation). A big part of it comes down to the c-word: culture,” Ramaswamy said in a lengthy post on X.
The post came as a surprise, with several Trump supporters throwing their support behind the “America First” banner.
Ramaswamy, a first-generation American citizen whose parents immigrated from India, added that a “culture that celebrates the prom queen over the Math Olympiad champion, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”
He then gave examples of some of the characters in Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell, and Family Matters, claiming that he knew of several groups of immigrant parents in the 1990s who actively limited their children to TV shows that “promoted mediocrity.” . He added that “their children went on to become hugely successful STEM graduates.”
“More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of 'Friends.' hanging out at the mall,'” he added.
“Most normal American parents look skeptically at 'those types of parents'. More normal American children regard these types of children with disdain. If you grow up striving for normality, then normality is what you will achieve.”
Seeking a “brutally honest” answer, Ramaswamy asked people to close their eyes and visualize one model versus another.
“Normality is not enough in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend that we do, we're going to get our asses handed to us by China,” he said.
Ultimately, Ramaswamy called it “our Sputnik moment,” claiming that “Trump's election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden age in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up.”
He then called for a culture that prioritizes “achievement over normality, excellence over mediocrity, nerdiness over conformity, hard work over laziness.”
“That's the work we've done for us, instead of wallowing in victimhood and just wanting (or legislating) alternative hiring practices. I'm confident we can do it,” concluded he.
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers instead of “native” Americans is not because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy and wrong explanation). An important part of it comes down to the C-word: culture. Difficult questions require difficult answers and if…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024
Earlier, Canadian musician Grimes, Elon Musk's former partner, also addressed the anti-India rhetoric on social media and said, “Suddenly making up anti-India energy out of thin air is embarrassing for all of you. Moreover, they were clear that this was what they were planning to do.”
Noting that her stepfather was Indian, she added, “I had a fiery childhood in a half-Indian household. Indian culture goes very well with Western culture.'
