“Make America Great Again” is, objectively, a brilliant slogan. It’s memorable, emotionally charged, and instantly polarizing. It does exactly what effective marketing is supposed to do: it captures attention and provokes a reaction.

But there’s a question we almost never hear asked seriously: What, exactly, made America great in the first place?

Hint: It is about the acquisition of social capital. 

Strip away the politics for a moment and focus on one dimension of “greatness”—economic dynamism. The United States has long distinguished itself through entrepreneurship, innovation, and the ability to build world-leading companies. That doesn’t define the entirety of national greatness, but it is undeniably central to it.

And when you examine that economic engine closely, one factor stands out:

Immigration.

The Contradiction at the Center of the Debate

In recent years, a major focus—arguably an obsession—of the political class has been to restrict immigration or expel those already here. The implicit assumption is that reducing immigration strengthens the country.

But does it?

If we take a fact-based approach and ask what role immigrants have actually played in building America’s modern economy, the answer is difficult to ignore.

What the Data Suggests

Looking at the 25 largest U.S.-based technology companies by market capitalization—a reasonable proxy for modern economic leadership— (see the data here) the influence of immigrants is striking:

  • 10 of the 25 were founded or co-founded by immigrants
  • 6 more were founded by children of immigrants
  • 14 current CEOs are immigrants or children of immigrants
  • Only 5 companies have neither immigrant founders nor immigrant CEOs

In other words, immigrant influence is not peripheral—it is foundational.

A Thought Experiment

Imagine, for a moment, that the United States had historically adopted the kind of restrictive immigration posture now being proposed.

What would be missing?

Based on the numbers above, it is not unreasonable to conclude that roughly half of America’s most valuable technology companies might not exist here at all. They would likely have been built somewhere else—Canada, Europe, or increasingly, Asia.

And that’s just the first-order effect.

The second-order consequences—lost jobs, reduced innovation, weaker ecosystems, diminished global influence—would compound quickly. The economic impact would not be incremental; it would be structural.

From Slogans to Strategy

If we truly lived in a fact-based, economically rational policy environment, the conclusion would be straightforward:

We would be competing to attract more immigrants, not fewer.

Historically, that’s exactly what the United States did. It positioned itself as the destination for ambitious, risk-taking individuals from around the world—and reaped enormous benefits as a result.

What “Greatness” Actually Requires

If “making America great again” is more than a slogan—if it is meant as a serious objective—then it requires aligning policy with reality.

And the reality is this:

America’s economic strength has been built, in large part, by immigrants and their children.

Turning away from that engine is not a path back to greatness. It’s a departure from one of the very forces that created it.

top_25_us_tech_companiesSee the spreadsheet here: