Does outsourcing work to third-world countries impact US employees in future?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40596989

by jerawaj749 • 2 years ago

8 8 2 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

rhelz• 2 years ago

Of course. It can even vastly benefit both countries and both of their workers, e.g. Canada is better off outsourcing the growing of coffee. If each country is playing to their natural advantages, like climate, or abundance of hydroelectric power, its far more efficient and produces more for everybody.

The only problem is if one country's natural advantage is a low standard of living and poverty wages.

giantg2• 2 years ago

"Canada is better off outsourcing the growing of coffee"

That's not really outsourcing. That's simply trade.

bnchrch• 2 years ago

The emphasis on "third-world" discounts how much of work is "translation"

And a great translation is dependant to some degree on a shared

- Language (Clear communication)

- Culture (Shared Ideas, Processes and Cohesive Habits)

- Timezone (Speed of iteration)

So as long as:

- Capital remains concentrated in the USA

- Canada remains relatively wealthy (compared to third world countries)

- South/Central America keeps their wonderful culture and language strong and vibrant.

I do not see US salaries changing in a big way due to outsourcing

(across the board anyway, though AI is a threat to some for sure)

meiraleal2• 2 years ago

Yes. It fosters economic prosperity for Americans by creating a larger global workforce that generates more value, which eventually benefits the U.S. economy and create better paying jobs for Americans.

gnz11• 2 years ago

Clearly this is not true. Was this written by AI?

meiraleal2• 2 years ago

And it isn't true because you say so?

hiAndrewQuinn• 2 years ago

Pushing the supply curve out to the right generally increases quantity supplied and decreases price. From that everything else is trivial.

Spooky23• 2 years ago

It depends on your point of view. Breaking work into pieces and contracting it out is bad for workers, as it’s cheapens labor.

It’s good for scaling up massive companies, which is good/bad depending on your pov.

Does outsourcing work to third-world countries impact US employees in future?

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