[jltsiren]

I think the biggest reason why America depends so heavily on foreign talent is culture. America is culturally a country of middlemen. Being a middleman (such as an administrator, a lawyer, a consultant, or many roles in finance) is more lucrative than doing fundamental work, and the social status of middlemen is higher. Too many Americans become middlemen, and then they hire foreign talent to do the actual work.

[tourmalinetaco]

That’s absolutely not a result of American culture, if anything every American is taught to be the CEO, the big man, the Steve Jobs. In reality it’s multinational business interests that push everyone to become middlemen as that’s cheaper. We moved most of our factories to asian countries, making most forms of American enterprise glorified dropshipping because we can use slave labor there. We import tons of office labor, especially tech jobs, from countries like India, where again it is cheaper. And the legal structure of so many sectors are essentially built to remove jobs from Americans (take for instance the federal limit on US-based doctors).

[jltsiren]

Everyone wants to be on the top, but their real preferences are revealed by the choices they make. Americans are less likely to study STEM than people in other developed countries, while foreign students in American universities prefer STEM fields. And when there is not enough domestic STEM talent, even with the help of foreign students, American businesses import foreign talent.