On immigration, innovation and the American conundrum

This is an attempt to understand why the United States began its descent into a mediocracy from a meritocracy. This article was inspired by a series of conversations over a period of time between my husband and me based on collective intergenerational experiences across a cross-section of people. I would also like to just say that this is in no way an attempt to undermine the success of immigrants, but more of an academic exercise to understand the joint impact of corporate greed and immigration patterns on the state of innovation in the US.

On the principle of collegiality and individual contribution to society at large

The principle on which the US was founded is this: The individual citizen is the basic building block of the country, and the quality of the individual dictates the future of the country (Teddy Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic, Sorbonne, France, 1910). The average citizen must be a good citizen for the republic to succeed. Therefore, every effort was made to ensure that a citizen could fulfill one’s full potential. This freedom to pursue one’s dreams was naturally predicated by the foundation of a relatively stable society where the basic necessities of life were well taken care of. While this respect for the individual citizen was of paramount importance, the same was also counter-balanced by the Protestant Christian principle of collegiality, which ensured that while individual citizens worked towards a better life, they also by and large pursued activities that could ensure the larger good of their society as well.

While the first wave of immigrants all came from western societies that shared similar principles, the latest wave of immigrants have come from countries where the individual citizen is almost incidental and the quality of the rulers is paramount. Extreme examples of such countries are Singapore and China. India too belongs to such a type of a governmental system, where ultimately only the top few matter, to steer the country down the right path. These new immigrants naturally do not relate to the original social contract that formed the basis of the United States.

Capitalism and the destruction of the family unit

The demands that American capitalism places on the individual family is untenable and has led to its destruction. For several decades now, the pressure on both members of the family to earn and make ends meet has only been increasing. Today, everything from owning a home to getting an education to decent healthcare access has all become out of reach for the common American. For example, take education: Prof Scott Galloway in one of his podcasts talked about how the University selection process used to be based on taking an average kid and helping the kid achieve their potential. This selection system has now been replaced by a rejection system where if you do not check all the boxes, there is no chance of entering the Ivies or even the public Ivies now. These universities have also become elite watering holes with endowments from donors dictating their selection policies. As David Brooks has repeatedly stated, there is now a well-entrenched American caste system that has excluded large swathes of Americans.

This is the second major factor, along with the current immigration pattern. For example, as the more subjective assessments for student selection were gradually replaced by the more standardized testing instruments in part due to larger student applications over the last few decades, the screening system gradually became heavily skewed in favor of students from Asian countries, who were well suited to crack this system. The definition of success and failure for these students is different. For most Asians, failure is seen as taboo and one that elicits shame both at a personal as well as a familial and societal level. It is therefore not an option to fail, therefore the Tiger Mom phenomenon. Contrast this with the American ethos that overwhelmingly states that the true credit belongs to the (wo)man in the arena, who is trying. Even in the extreme possibility of failure, those who tried are seen as superior to those who do not try at all, for fear of failure. Hence, there is a Pichai and a Nadella but no desi Gates or Jobs or Brin equivalents yet.

The final factor: Greed

American society has become hyper-individualistic and personal gain is sought at the expense of society itself. Companies in the US have been giving away their family silver for a few petty gains. American intellectual property has been steadily compromised, and American manufacturing has been completely hollowed out. Across American companies, shareholder profit is prioritized above all else. There is absolutely no appetite for innovation today as the timelines for ROI are getting shorter and shorter. The domino effect that this has unleashed is there for all to see. Companies such as GE and Boeing are shells of their former selves. They do not even have the infrastructure to manufacture iPhones in the US. Assuming they did, an iPhone would cost in the range of 3-3.5K USD.

In summary, the respect and freedom for the individual to pursue their dreams and the tolerance for failure is what forms the cornerstone of American innovation and Entrepreneurship. This has been steadily eroded by corporate greed and the group think and fear of failure culture espoused by the latest wave of immigrants. In my opinion, these trends are irreversible.