Billionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy stirred up the internet on Thursday with a lengthy X post breaking down how "American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence."
Ramaswamy began his post as a response to assertions there are a limited number of native-born Americans in tech positions and a seemingly heavy percentage of foreign-born coders and engineers, thanks to the H-1B visa program.
"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," he wrote.
"Tough questions demand tough answers & if we're really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH."
Ramaswamy went on the say that America needs to start instilling a more STEM-focused culture at an early age.
"A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers. — 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 added.
The incoming co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency said he hopes the election of Donald Trump will ignite a new era in American culture.
"This can be our Sputnik moment. We've awaken [sic] from slumber before & we can do it again," he wrote.
"Trump's election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up."
The post, seen over almost 20 million times as of Thursday evening, sparked a debate on X, with some on the political right taking issue with Ramaswamy's claim.
Mark Cernovich, a conservative commentator, posted: "The Woodstock generation managed to build out aerospace, the one before went to the moon, America was doing great. Underlying your post is that we were all living in squalor until being rescued by H-1B's. Then why did everyone want to come here?"
Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the U.N., posted on X: "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. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers."