Editor's note: This piece was co-authored by David Sokol.
America has historically been a place where immigrants come to build a better life. Sadly, the three pillars that make America attractive to immigrants are under threat today, thanks largely in part to a ruling class who seem to be taking every opportunity they can to raise taxes and create more red tape for businesses; water down our meritocratic ideals; and ignore the rule of law.
In America, we value disruptors and innovators. The results speak for themselves when you look at the visionaries who have come here and started some of the world’s most recognizable and prosperous businesses. Elon Musk, an immigrant from South Africa and, now, a household name, is an outstanding example of what America can do for someone with drive and vision; but the truly remarkable thing is that his story is just one among many. Sergey Brin fled the Soviet Union to come to the United States and went on to co-found the first iteration of Google. Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! Inc, moved with his mother to Southern California from Taiwan as a child.
America’s low barrier to success means that immigrants can come here and have an equal opportunity to be successful. Our traditional tendency toward low taxes and a light-touch regulatory system, especially when compared to other countries, makes it a great place for immigrants to start businesses. America has the highest percentage of billion dollar startups in the world, at 67.7 percent. Amazon, Uber, and AirBnB all began as startups in this country. A typically abundant flow of capital, free market tilt, and willingness of investors to take big risks on new businesses makes up the foundation of our culture.
However, the past two years in particular have raised our economic barriers to entry. The COVID shutdowns, for example, disproportionately hurt immigrant owned businesses. The current administration’s push to appease a far-left segment of the Democratic base has crushed opportunities in the energy sector. Many immigrants work well-paying jobs in the oil and natural gas industries, but contracts for renewable energy projects, through corporate cronyism, often go to the politically connected.
Corporate cronyism also runs counter to our cultural respect of meritocracy. Though meritocracy is now one of the political left’s favorite things to criticize, Jason L. Riley put it best in his Wall Street Journal piece from 2021, in which he explains how meritocracies are not “designed to degrade and exclude” but “to replace a system based heavily on patronage and nepotism … and to distribute opportunities according to ability and talent.” In America, equal opportunity for all still holds weight.
This is not what you will hear from major media outlets, whose pundits joyfully return to the tired talking point that the American Dream is dead. The toxic oppression narrative that pervades much of the American education system as of late is based on the racism of low expectations. If American students are taught that immigrants are disadvantaged, why should we expect them to succeed? This line of thought has contributed to a denigration of civil rights laws in the name of equal outcomes rather than equal opportunity.
Finally, our reverence for the rule of law sets our country apart. In keeping with meritocracy, we have a tradition of taking the law seriously and emphasizing public safety. If an American’s rights are violated, there is recourse. People come here for safe streets and safe neighborhoods.
Rule of law also means respect for property rights. Innovators come to America because they know that they will have the rights to the fruits of their labor. By extension, intellectual property means that your right to profit from your ideas is protected, which further incentivizes great minds to come here.
We all suffer when we do not enforce the rule of law–immigrants especially. Unfortunately, this has been the case in recent years. A failure to enforce laws pertaining to illegal immigration is a disservice to immigrants who have and wish to come here through the legal process. Prosecutors who fail to enforce the laws on the books have manufactured a crisis of crime and danger in America’s great cities, where many immigrant enclaves are located. The defund the police movement, born out of the BLM riots of 2020, saw immigrant owned businesses looted and destroyed, for sake of social “justice.”
Regardless of the myriad of threats to the American system, it remains resilient. We should be optimistic that our country will emerge for the better. Immigrants are optimistic, too. After all, why else would they go to such lengths to partake in the American experiment if they did not share our optimistic vision for the future?
Adam Brandon is the president of FreedomWorks. David Sokol is an American business executive and chairman emeritus of the Horatio Alger Society. Both are co-authors of their new book America in Perspective: Defending the American Dream for the Next Generation.