Quote:
Originally Posted by Craggoo
What are your thoughts on programming jobs being shipped overseas Dave?
Interesting question and sort of a complicated answer. The gist is that I generally approve.
I believe that there are many benefits to using the world-wide economy (
What Coke Contains came up on HN the other day). While there are problems with the world economy, I believe that the net gain is far greater than the localized and personal loss.
Who am I to tell a person in India that she is not able to work, make a living, provide for her family, and hopefully enjoy the freedoms that we here in America take for granted? Would her life be better if she uneducated, forced into a bad marriage, was put into a brothel to scrub floors?
Who am I to tell a person that his country does not deserve the fruits of the inventions that came from the Western world, while I selfishly use these inventions and put no effort into inventing something useful myself? What opportunities for him and his country am I killing if I am not willing to be open about the ideas of our world and preventing him from gaining the skills needed to add a little green to his country's yard?
What I do not approve of is implied or real slavery. If the goal of the American company is to pay Indians $3/hr, then they are promoting irresponsibility and selfishness, which I cannot get on board with. If the pay is fair to the countrymen, given that pay is less than the average Western developer and the quality is the same or nearly the same, then this is strictly a business decision that I do not question.
I believe that having an in-house developer often outweighs the financial gains from outsourcing, depending the situation. If you have a product that needs fast iteration and constant review, then having a person on-hand to talk to is going to pay off in the short-term, and compound in the long-term. If a company is just tossing up a WP site, and the needed interaction with the developer is the design, then it is probably a better financial decision to outsource. Just look for a good WP/Magento/Drupal webdev house in your area: their work is nothing better, and often much worse, than what we can find overseas.
I sell things online, and many of my sources are from Asia. Why? Well, the product is genuinely developed and manufactured over there. There are often no American equivalents. I would be a hypocrite if I said that I only want American-made products and ideas.
So You Want to Boycott Israel? Here’s A List of Products and Services You Need to Start With....). The idea can extend to any country. Although the list will be different, the impact can be the same.
Even if you are strongly for keeping jobs in America, I think that you'd have to agree that you don't really want many of the jobs that are sent overseas. In this case, you end up with jobs that are interesting and crap jobs "over there," which unfortunately reinforces hierarchy and caste, but is upside for us, aside from the fact that it may be harder to get into the door.