I find it rather ironic that so many people in America, the land of capitalism, hate outsourcing so much. This is simple economics right out of Adam Smith. People in India can do the same things as people here in the States, and at a significantly lower price. Therefore, they get the jobs, and rightfully so. One good benefit for Americans is that this allows their employers to use that money elsewhere. And yeah, IT job salaries might fall, and some people might have find jobs outside the IT field. But for t
You obviously don't know crap about economic theory. Free trade relies on the idea of comparative advantage, that one place is inherently better at doing something than another. When Indian programmers are just as good as American programmers and there's no transport cost (facilitated by internet transmission of code), then it really is a race to the bottom to see who can pay the least for the samee service. There's no advantage to hiring US programmers, so it goes to India! In short, we're screwed! And, as
A competitive advantage is all about value. Can you produce a better product, and for how much? The reason that Japenese did so well in the auto markets is that they not only produced BETTER cars, but did it for less.
In this case India is showing that they have a competitive advantage in programming. They can produce code at the required level and do it for FAR less than the American programmer.
It is not, however, a race to the bottom. The Indian salary will not remain static. As the number of jobs and th
In this case India is showing that they have a competitive advantage in programming. They can produce code at the required level and do it for FAR less than the American programmer.
You don't get it, do you? The only reason they can do it for far less than the American programmer is that they live in a different economy. It has nothing to do with the individual programmer and everything to do with differences between the economies of the countries in question.
Don't you people see what's happening here? As soon as India starts to see some of the benefits of the money being pumped into their economy and starts to use that money to improve the standard of living there, the corporations will shift their gaze towards other countries that have a lower standard of living (and thus a lower cost of living). India's economy will thus go into the drink, just like ours (the U.S.) is beginning to. The corporations will play entire countries against each other until they all have rock-bottom standards of living. This is inevitably what must happen as long as the price of shifting the demand for labor remains low -- economics doesn't allow for any other outcome.
Remember: the cheapest source of labor is an individual to whom you're paying a subsistence wage where that wage is barely enough to buy food. Electricity costs money. Running water costs money. Sewage costs money. The more basic services you add to the mix the higher the cost of living and thus the higher the cost of labor. Put pressure on countries to reduce the cost of living and they eventually must reduce or eliminate such services in order to compete against countries that don't have such services. It's that simple.
Yep, and to emphasize a point, the corporations must outsource overseas because if they don't, they'll be outcompeted by those who do. The only thing which can stop them are tarrifs.
That's not always true. Small companies that don't have huge overhead, like (as is my understanding) ACD Systems here in Victoria, BC, Canada, don't need to outsource because they're making enough money even with the higher wages they're paying to employees here.
Additionally, a lot of corporations like HP will outsource their IT and helpdesk staff to save a few million while the CEOs and upper management are still lining their pockets with HUGE amounts of money that probably balances out what they save.
Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool discovers
something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition.
Outsourcing is a good thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Outsourcing is a good thing... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Outsourcing is a good thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
In this case India is showing that they have a competitive advantage in programming. They can produce code at the required level and do it for FAR less than the American programmer.
It is not, however, a race to the bottom. The Indian salary will not remain static. As the number of jobs and th
Re:Outsourcing is a good thing... (Score:2, Insightful)
You don't get it, do you? The only reason they can do it for far less than the American programmer is that they live in a different economy. It has nothing to do with the individual programmer and everything to do with differences between the economies of the countries in question.
Don't you people see what's happening here? As soon as India starts to see some of the benefits of the money being pumped into their economy and starts to use that money to improve the standard of living there, the corporations will shift their gaze towards other countries that have a lower standard of living (and thus a lower cost of living). India's economy will thus go into the drink, just like ours (the U.S.) is beginning to. The corporations will play entire countries against each other until they all have rock-bottom standards of living. This is inevitably what must happen as long as the price of shifting the demand for labor remains low -- economics doesn't allow for any other outcome.
Remember: the cheapest source of labor is an individual to whom you're paying a subsistence wage where that wage is barely enough to buy food. Electricity costs money. Running water costs money. Sewage costs money. The more basic services you add to the mix the higher the cost of living and thus the higher the cost of labor. Put pressure on countries to reduce the cost of living and they eventually must reduce or eliminate such services in order to compete against countries that don't have such services. It's that simple.
Re:Outsourcing is a good thing... (Score:2)
Yep, and to emphasize a point, the corporations must outsource overseas because if they don't, they'll be outcompeted by those who do. The only thing which can stop them are tarrifs.
Re:Outsourcing is a good thing... (Score:1)
Additionally, a lot of corporations like HP will outsource their IT and helpdesk staff to save a few million while the CEOs and upper management are still lining their pockets with HUGE amounts of money that probably balances out what they save.