When the West had an industrial culture, we could compete with inexpensive labor because we had superior skill concentration, logistics, and capital investment. If you're willing to pay a premium, do so. It was Consumer indifference that let it happen.
US farmers - ~$9.50 USD a month ~1850's Euro labourer -~$652.44 USD a month ~1850's
Silver value in USD: https://commodityhq.com/education/a-brief-2000-year-history-...
References -
US Labour Rate(Farmers - page 6): https://www.nber.org/chapters/c2486.pdf
Europe Labour Rates (Labourer - pages 6): https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/media/2150/allen-greatdiv.pdf
Everyone gets paid at a rate relative to their local cost of living, remember. Being “cheaper” offshore is merely an artefact of exchange rates and tariffs.
Because you're a human who's part of a society, not just a cog in a capitalist's machine. What you said makes sense, but only from a blinkered point of view that treats market forces as morality. You might as well turn it around and ask yourself why the person with skills from a poorer place shouldn't get the higher wage.
Why is it inherently moral for me to get a certain benefit vs someone else, why would that change depending on where I am or where they are, where I'm from or where they are from?
I personally prefer working with people I can have a high level discussion with and they deliver their portion with best practices, good communication, baked in. That's valuable. I believe it makes your work distinct from someone without those skills.
If it were all anonymous and I can make no distinction, you're equally valuable. There are cases where people from poorer places should and do get the higher wage.
Why shouldn't that person get the higher wage? That person is also part of a society.
Ideally, they should. The problem comes in when a capitalist plays a labor arbitrage game that causes economic damage to real people in his home area, just so he can pocket the difference in labor costs.
Questions like...
>>> If your work can't be differentiated from someone elses, why should you command a higher wage?
...are pretty much always asked from the perspective of a labor-buying capitalist looking to maximize her own profits, regardless of externalities. Those questions have an insidious pseudo-moral tone that holds up the capitalist's profit over other concerns, and that subtly paints a worker's desire to make a respectable local wage as selfish.
It's very rare to turn the question around (at least from a position of power) to challenge the capitalist's decision-making.