http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=489923


in reply to Re^4: When are you moving to India to find a better job?
in thread When are you moving to India to find a better job?

means to underpay workers
You had me until there. What do you consider "underpay"? What if it's higher than the typical local standard-of-living pay? I know that when the word got out about Nike hiring all these overseas workers, that the workers were clamoring for these jobs, because they were better conditions and higher pay than the typical local jobs.

Just because someone wants $20/hr to do something in the US, and a guy in India will do it for $3/hr, can you still feel bad if that Indian guy would have gotten $1.50/hr anywhere else? I don't think so. I think what we're seeing is that Americans have been living high on the hog, and the rest of the world has suffered, and that eventually, it'll all sort itself out globally.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
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Re^6: When are you moving to India to find a better job?
by polettix (Vicar) on Sep 07, 2005 at 16:43 UTC
    Good point, you're right on this. But I hope that I had you in what followed (making them work in less protected environments and with less guarantees), because a broken leg should be the same all over the world.

    Flavio
    perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf

    Don't fool yourself.
      because a broken leg should be the same all over the world.
      The Western world should be upset about the unfair competition ... keeping taxes low by not having a public health system. Private health care is probably more effective but causes unnecessary suffering to people not covered by it. Those low taxes results in higher investments.

      US use this totally inhuman treatment of many workers to outcompete Europe and Canada!

      (The above is a bit tounge-in-cheek. The US health care system is fscked, but so is my local Swedish public system. :-( )

      Seriously, you have no sense of history.

      The workers at many of those factories probably have better health care then the rest of the working population of that country.

      If you want to argue, give good references showing why the economists are wrong, who argue that those factory jobs (etc) better the economy and people's life in all of Asia.

      It was less than a century we had child workers in the west. Human rights for women isn't exactly new, either.

        Maybe you missed my original node. I'm not talking about public health system. I'm talking about corporations that go overseas because they can find a work regulation more forgiving than that in their home country. Because they can make the good and the bad time there, but not at home. Because they are bound to guarantee lower security standards - this is why I was talking about a broken leg.

        This does not mean that they shouldn't invest overseas. What I find unfair is that their gain arises from worker's weaker position (with respect home workers). I accept the argument from merlyn about payment, as I said; I don't accept that this is not sufficient, and that more gains are done on looser safety and guarantees.

        You say I have no sense of history. You're probably right, but I see here in Italy that years of working rights are being sacrificed in the name of "work flexibility", while capitals tend to concentrate in the hands of few and people suffers for increased poverty and less stability - which is a big step back IMO. And if this happens here, I fear that better conditions will never happen there: it's us that are adapting to their lower standard, not the contrary.

        It was less than a century we had child workers in the west. Human rights for women isn't exactly new, either.
        So what? Are you implying we should step back in the west? Or that this path will be the natural one for the east in the next years? This only means that they can't have easy slaves in the west, and they go looking in the third and fourth world. And this is history since the night of times.

        Flavio
        perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf

        Don't fool yourself.