The Face of Cheap Labor on the Internet

You just gave me an excellent business idea! Thank you!

*Agreed*

Hire people in the US! They will eventually become your customers.

I don't think the point of the video is that you can get people to work for you for 50 cents an hour.

I think the point is that 50 cents an hour is a raise over what these people receive working in factories supporting large corporations.

You, as an employer, can reward your employees any way you want. Start at a higher rate, offer productivity bonuses, offer monthly incentives and bonuses, etc.

Also, remember the cost and standard of living is much different in many of these countries. While 50 cents an hour may be extreme, a few dollars an hour may be considered a high wage.

In the U.S., the minimum wage is only $7.25 and hour. That isn't enough to live on but I don't hear a big clamour to raise it...

And US states that, historically, have been favourable to workers rights are now enacting "right to work" legislation. Which is more "right to exploit" for the corporations than an effort to increase sustainable jobs for the community.

*Agreed*

Don's hit the nail on the head.

I'm one of many people who have lost their full time, skilled job, because it was outsourced to India. The same thing is happening to people all over the country. That changes lives too.

I can't agree with you more. It's all about arriving at a mutually beneficial and mutually profitable situation. As you said, standards are important and American/European/Canadian/Australian clients help boost emerging countries' English writing standards and competencies by providing important quality guidelines and strictly sticking to those guidelines.

I tend to agree with this. If a VA was trained up and ready to go, I'd pay full rates.

All I have found are people / corps which promise that a VA can do all said marketing tasks, yet none have the initiative to self start. All need training etc.

Other problem is that many a unemployed and looking for some cash, so long term they are not really committed.

I know prefer a rolodex of specialist skill sets.

It certainly matters what you're hiring them to do. I have a VA that does great graphics design and another that is an expert web developer. It doesn't show. They create the content that I hire them to make.

Is English your first language... Just checking

That sounds humanitarian and fair but I have to wonder....

Would you hire that same cheap worker if he weren't as cheap? Is the work and language such that you would pay for it if he charged $5-10 per hour?

Probably not. If you can find good work with cheap labor - that's fine. Hire them and pay them a bit more than they expect. If you justify the outsourcing by thinking it's "good enough"...it's probably not.

You say that:
Then I ask you why is it then that folks from those other countries hire US folks to edit, rewrite and/or write content for them and pay US prices?

Just a point to ponder...

Terra

And that is PRECISELY the problem (the bolded part).

I love dvduval's OP and the video, and I love that he gets it about the multinational corporaations that are so exploitative, AND that we can band together and help break their grip on the poor in third-world countries, I truly do.

BUT the problem is that it's not that the contractors in the U.S. "charge too much," it's that the impoverished, exploited workers in third world countries charge too little. No, they don't charge too little for THEIR local situation (their economy and cost of living), but we workers in the U.S. can't compete because our cost of living is so very much, much higher. BUT, because having NO job is worse than having a poorly paying job, wages here in the U.S. are plummeting in the face of all this wonderful "outsourcing" and globalization. That brings our standard of living down quite a bit, but makes employers really, really happy. They get more profits.

Now, while you may say "more profits = good! They can create more jobs."

But what kind of jobs -- more exploitative jobs that leave their employees impoverished?

To continue picking on Wal-Mart, did you know:
6 Members of Wal-Mart Family Have More Money than Poorest 90 Million Americans

Combine that fact with the fact that each Walmart store requires $420,000 in food stamps for its workers ($2.66 BILLION annually) and other taxpayer assistance. You, the taxpayer, are subsidizing Walmart and/or all the people who shop there and "benefit" from low prices. Is that what you intend?? (Hmmm, that's a far better business model than most of ours: let the government to help compensate your employees for you.)

Similarly, when outsourcing to third-world countries at ridiculously low wages, our own economy is still in the doldrums,there are still millions of good, hardworking people who need jobs -- and despite the rhetoric, jobs DON'T come from tax breaks, they come from consumer demand and consumers don't got much demands when they don't got no money.

Here's what US Corporations have been doing job-wise over the last two + decades:

Every single person who outsources is supporting the further erosion of our own economy because you are supporting the further erosion of our own wages. I'm not saying don't do it because, as dvduval points out, maybe we can help loosen the exploitative grip by corporations, though I believe probably a better idea, or let's say another idea we ought to simultaneously pursue is the idea of global unions. (And before anyone jumps on any anti-union tirade or rant, anyone who has ever worked for a paycheck in the U.S. has benefitted from unions, whether they were members or not -- 5 day work week, 8 hour days, paid holidays and vacations and sick leave -- all of which are being eroded because unions have lost so much ground.)

But just understand what you're doing, what impact you're having, the downsides with the upsides and do it consciously.

My ex-father-in-law worked for GM for a long time. Even after he retired he always bought a new GM vehicle every other year. Loyalty? Nope. Lots of money? Nope. Huge discounts to employees and retirees was the reason I don't know if it's still done - but it was a sweet deal for him.

I've used odesk before, and don't get it twisted, when you are paying someone 2-3/hour to build backlinks, there is a good chance you are paying a software to do it.

The cost of living is different over there, and many of them make 4-$5 a day, so 2-$3 an hour is a big improvement in their lives. I can understand some may feel guilty but at the same time you never know what is behind the product you buy at Walmart or any retailer for that matter. Everytime you put a piece of tomatoe in your mouth, their is a great chance someone was paid 4-$5 a day to pick it.

I have talked to people from odesk and they are happy with what they do, and love it. These people come online to make money to better their living conditions, and if you don't hire them then someone will pay them $4 a day to work 16 hours on the rice fields so you can have food on your table.

When you outsource to some of these countries, you are doing a good service by hiring them, because there are a couple billion more people who could use the help, and millions that will die of hunger, because they have no way to make money. We live in a world where only a handful of people make most of the money, and the rest of us have to work our buts off just to maintain.

Would I work for 2-$3 here in the U.S? of course not, but I don't have $20/monthly gas,electric bills, or a $100 mortgage. What if I were in their situation, would I work for 2-$3 an hour? you bet your ass I would, I grew up poor so I know what it is like.

I totally agree with this viewpoint, it will make the guy feel admired and help you get rid of the "guilt" feeling, if you've got any!
Partly agreed, but bear in mind, focus of humanity should be towards creating equal and fair opportunities.

Hi,

To imply that people who employ outsourcers are doing others
a disservice is flat out misleading and I believe entirely wrong.

I say this as someone who has been involved with several
girlfriends, one who was from Indonesia and one from the
Philippines.

And also having employed a Filipina for over 3 years.

It's enormously difficult in the Philippines, especially if you're
over age 30 to get a job that pays hardly anything. There are
factory jobs and not a lot else. It does depend on college, etc.

But the biggest export from the Philippines is labor. And guess
where they work?

A whole CRAPLOAD work in countries where they are in more
or less SLAVERY. 12 million people in the world are in REAL
slavery.

I happen to know because it happened to my girlfriend once
who took a domestic housekeeping job in Syria (where 17,000
Filipinos work) for $200 a day.

Except she had a device on her and couldn't leave the house and
had to eat their food which she couldn't stomach.

Basically, it was slavery. She was forced to sign a contract
in Arabic.

This happens in many other countries and not just Syria.

It took me over 6 months and an enormous amount of effort
to get her out of that situation not to mention time, not to
mention getting on a radar of the U.S. Gov't (I think) because
I had to send $ to the Philippines embassy for her plane ticket
out.

Now, she can't get a job in the Philippines because she is
age 40 and never finished college. If she could, it would pay
maybe $50 a month. She did take one sales job and that's
about what it paid. And it wasn't a good job.

My Fililipina gets paid VERY well by Philippines standards,
not by U.S. standards.

But she makes more than I'm guessing 90% of Philippines
workers.

I could have a VERY long line of Filipinas who would love
to have her job.

Most people don't understand that in countries like these
youth tends to be VERY highly valued at jobs. And if you
aren't young, man it is REALLY difficult.

Ask a girl in Thailand who is age 40 or over what it's like
to try to get a job there.

I had a friend I met there on a holiday once who worked
12 hours a day ironing clothes for under $100 a month.

She was the sweetest girl in the world but had no job
skills.

Now, I am NOT for virtual sweatshops. But there is a
WHOLE ENTIRE other world of outsourcing.

For example, Joel Peterson has an office he opened in
the Philippines (kinda like Perry Belcher used to have).
The people are paid a good wage by Philippines standards.
And they have a nice, comfortable office with desks to
work out of.

It's a nice office.

I think it''s a MASSIVE DISSERVICE to go on this whole
morale outrage about outscoucing.

Have you BEEN to these countries?

Have you hired there?

I've been to Thailand. I've been to the Philippines.

Do you understand what WAGES are like? How much
a $300 to $500 a month job can mean, especially if it's an
8 or so hour job from the comfort of home on a computer?

The average FAMILY in Makati, Philippines earns $300 a
month for the whole family. Or maybe it's $250. I don't
remember off the top of my head.

But that's for the whole family income.

These people not only need theses jobs they are grateful
for them.

What I'm saying is it's wrong to paint a whole entire industry
with one brush that is innacurate coloring of what's going on
at many levels.

Marlon

PS: In the Philippines, you're probably SAVING that person
from having to take a job overseas and having a real chance of
being in SLAVERY.

And I don't mean the kind where you got a small desk.

I mean, they hook a monitor up to you and you can't go anywhere.
You can't stop to eat.

You're treated like you have no rights.

My friend still has problems in her hands and back just from being
there 6 months.

One girl she met when she escaped to the Embassy jumped out
a window up a story or two to escape and really injured herself.