In case you missed it over the holidays, Vivek Ramaswamy, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur tapped by Donald Trump to cochair a government efficiency committee, has a lot to say about parenting. In the midst of arguing for more H-1B visas to bring in foreign tech workers (angering many Trump supporters), the father of two took to X right after Christmas to explain why “top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans,” noting that it “comes down to the c-word: culture.”
Ramaswamy, born in Cincinnati to Indian immigrant parents, writes: “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. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”
