Summary
- Palmer Luckey discussed homeschooling, immigration and technology Wednesday at The Heritage Foundation’s Forum in National Harbor, Maryland.
- Luckey said homeschooling faces opposition despite what he described as strong academic outcomes for homeschooled children.
- Luckey argued that American technology companies could succeed without relying on the H-1B visa program.
Abraham Lincoln was homeschooled, and it seems to have worked out for him, said tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, who was homeschooled.
Luckey, founder of Oculus VR and co-founder of Anduril Industries, has been at the forefront of technological innovation for the U.S. military. On Wednesday at The Forum, an event sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, Luckey gave his thoughts about education and warned that homeschooling is under siege around the world.
“One of the only laws still on the books from Nazi Germany, signed by Adolf Hitler, is their prohibition on homeschooling,” Luckey noted. He said that the reason is that Germany wanted a uniformity of education and culture and they “don’t want their kids to train to think outside of it, they’re not even hiding it.”
There has, however, been a pushback against the attacks on homeschooling in the United States, Luckey said. He praised the fight because homeschoolers have proven to perform better than most children on almost every metric.
“I appreciate what Heritage has done advocating for homeschool rights in the United States,” Luckey said.
The tech wunderkind who developed the Oculus VR headset as a teenager and became a billionaire by his early twenties, noted that he was homeschooled and said that he would be homeschooling his children too.
Homeschooling receives opposition from teachers unions and those who feel threatened by students’ success, he said, but it’s essential for many children to develop into their best selves.
During his talk, Luckey also addressed the effects of immigration on the tech industry and was asked whether American tech would collapse without the H-1B visa program for high-skilled foreign workers.
“No,” he said, adding that such an argument is part of a “massive conspiracy,” a “lie” that’s holding us back.
“This is why you see the world’s best paid tech analysts saying that an iPhone made in America would cost $37,000, that a laptop made in America would cost $100,000, they’re absolutely full of it,” he said. “It’s not true at all. We’re going to be able to beat the prices of some Chinese made laptops made here in America.”
He further said that the original purpose of the visa program has been distorted, arguing that it wasn’t supposed to help create “entire industries” in the United States.
Luckey said that the success of past immigrant groups in the early to mid-20th century has been used improperly to imply that all immigration is good or the same.
Luckey said that there’s a huge difference between people who’ve fled Vietnam to escape communism and those who are coming to America today. In addition, he said, there are different kinds of H-1B visas, including one aimed at bringing in “extraordinary talent.”
For those who are uniquely talented, the O-1 program can bring them into the country, Luckey said, and that the U.S. doesn’t need to keep the mass program going.
During his conversation, Luckey was abriefly explained why his companies’ names, and many of the products they make, reference “The Lord of the Rings,” a series of fantasy books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Anduril Industries is named after a special sword nicknamed “Flame of the West” in the novels.
Luckey said that another tech titan, Peter Thiel, began the trend with the name of his company Palantir, also a reference to the books. Luckey said that Thiel invested in him when the rest of Big Tech wouldn’t help him because of his political beliefs.
Luckey said the “Flame of the West” nickname—which implied that the sword would defend men from evil—appealed to him. He said the trend has continued with “dozens” of companies referring to Tolkien’s works now.
“We’re going to run out of names in Lord of the Rings,” he said to laughter. “They’re going to take every word in the books and turn them into a company.”
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
