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Comment by ilrwbwrkhv | Hacker News Reader

> Rather than hire US workers to perform the onshore work, these firms hire large numbers of H-1B and L-1 visa workers to fill the jobs in America.

Terrible for America. And terrible for India.

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But good for the people running the consulting companies, and their friends in politics.

Yup and that is why people like Narayan Murthy are the greatest criminals in the history of India. Ruined an entire generation of Indians by teaching them to do second hand work and stopped any original thinking from happening. That is why they are so behind China.

How is it Murthy’s fault? India started behind on many sectors and needed time to catch up.

These vilified IT sweatshop jobs were and remain stable paths to the middle class for young Indians growing up in poverty.

It’s only recently that India started to produce high-quality startups, because they had already built a base with the low-hanging fruit first.

P.S. - I’m not Indian.

India has no high-quality startups because of outsourcing.

I think you're getting the order of causation reversed. The alternative to Infosys in the 90s would be to move abroad or work in a government job. You can't build a Porsche on day 1 - you have to start with the 10k car.

The consulting companies kick started the engineering base that eventually led to MNCs/big tech setting up offices in India, and the broader startup ecosystem today.

> MNCs/big tech setting up offices in India also was terrible both for India and the USA. India has no originality, USA lost jobs.

In an ironic twist, cheaper white collar workers should make services on the whole cheaper. Something that would be good for blue collar/hourly workers. In the same way that lax borders are beneficial to white collar workers by making goods cheaper.

Looks like we are all "racists" after all.

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