The “Seed Corn” Problem: A Look at Diversity Programs And American Jobs

What Does “Eating Your Seed Corn” Mean?
Imagine you’re a farmer. You have two choices: you could eat all your corn now, or you could save some of the best kernels to plant next year. “Eating your seed corn” means choosing the short-term satisfaction—eating today—and destroying your future food supply. It’s sacrificing tomorrow for today.

Some people argue this is what has happened in America with certain policies. They believe that in an effort to make things fairer right now, we might have damaged the engine that creates future jobs and wealth for everyone.

The Argument: Who Builds the Economy?
For many years, the group most often blamed for America’s problems has been the White male. However, this same group is responsible for building the major industries that created America’s strong middle class. This includes car companies, steel mills, factories, and the more recent revolutions in electronics, computers, and artificial intelligence. The feeling is that instead of being thanked for this, they have been unfairly criticized.

In response to calls for fairness, programs like Affirmative Action and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) were created. The theory behind them was that some groups of people had an unearned “privilege” that made life easier for them. This privilege wasn’t about talent or hard work, but about historical advantages. The goal of these programs was to transfer some opportunities to groups that didn’t have that head start.

The Concern: Where Are the New Jobs?
The big worry expressed here is about results. Have these diversity programs actually created new middle-class jobs? Have they led to new factories, inventions, or innovations? Specifically, it points out that it doesn’t see evidence of Black males—who were supposed to be helped by these policies—starting new companies or creating groundbreaking inventions in garages at a high rate.

The concern is that we may have focused so much on dividing up the existing “pie” of jobs and opportunities that we stopped focusing on baking new pies. If the “seed corn” of the people who traditionally built industries is being dismissed or discouraged, who will build the next generation of companies?

The Complication: Jobs Moving Overseas
This problem got worse, when manufacturing jobs began leaving America for other countries in the 1980s and after. One manager at the time even said that moving factories overseas was a way to avoid affirmative action rules and hire people he thought would work for less pay and be better workers.

Whether that single view was right or wrong, the result was the same: millions of good jobs disappeared. This made the competition for the remaining jobs even fiercer. People began fighting harder for their share of a shrinking pool of opportunity. This accelerated after the 2008 financial crisis and during the Obama administration, leaving many in the middle class feeling anxious and left behind.

A Surprising Voice: Nelson Mandela on Achievement
The great South African leader Nelson Mandela, a hero for racial justice, once noted that no winner of a Nobel Prize in the physical sciences (like Physics, Chemistry, or Medicine) was born and raised in Africa.

At first glance, that statement might sound negative. But coming from Mandela, it was simply a factual observation. The point is that real achievement in certain complex fields often requires specific conditions: strong education systems, stable societies, and a culture of investment in research. It suggests that simply hiring for diversity doesn’t automatically create those conditions or the geniuses that come from them. The foundation has to be built first.

The Big Picture: Education and the Future

The argument here isn’t about intelligence. It’s about preparation. If the education system fails to prepare a large group of people with the necessary skills in math, science, and critical thinking, then no amount of diversity hiring at the job level can fix it. The pipeline of future inventors, engineers, and entrepreneurs runs dry. We are trying to fix a problem at the end (hiring) that starts at the very beginning (education and family structure).

A Call for Balance
In short, this article’s message is a warning about balance. It suggests that America might have “eaten its seed corn” by:

1. Vilifying the group that historically built its industries.

2. Focusing diversity efforts mostly on dividing existing opportunities rather than aggressively creating new ones.

3. Ignoring the crisis in education and skill-building that prevents true equality of opportunity from ever taking root.

Diversity and fairness are not bad goals. But how we pursue them matters. A policy is only good if it makes the country stronger, richer, and more innovative in the future. If it only creates fairness today by weakening what we can build tomorrow, then we have, metaphorically, eaten our seed corn and jeopardized our future harvest. The challenge is to create a system that is both fair and excels at producing the talent and innovation that drives everyone forward.

Paul F. Renda has worked in information security for over 40 years. He’s been published in multiple publications, including The Military Cyber Professional Association Magazine.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.