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Comment by auser678 | Hacker News Reader

Yes, this is true.I know a lot of companies that are hiring more in the US and opening offices. This trend is going to continue. USA has some exceptional people and skillsets, and so do Indians. It will be a win win situation.

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This is what the term "negative externalities" was invented to cover. It is a win-win situation for those who successfully outsource - getting good work at lower cost. It is a win-win situation for those who get decent work. However, it is not a win-win situation for those who cannot get a job or who take a big pay cut or worse conditions because so much of the work in their sector has been outsourced. Perhaps you could say it is a win-win-lose situation.

Like you describe, out-sourcing generally provides a net-benefit to society by providing cheaper goods here and jobs in India. But it does not necessary produce a net-benefit to the US, since the trade off is cheaper goods but fewer American jobs.

As a global citizen, I'm not concerned about the latter.

Problem is, other countries aren't necessarily as open as we are to outsourcing and foreign labour. For instance, Western universities have many Asian professors, especially in Math, Science, and Engineering. But South Korean universities very rarely employ foreign professors, at least not full professors.

This goes for many jobs in South Korea -- they simply don't want foreigners to do it, because foreigners aren't Korean. The exception is teaching English Conversation, because the Korean teachers very obviously can't do it well enough themselves. The government is trying to limit South Korea's reliance on foreign ESL teachers though.

This goes for outsourcing too -- the UK government is happy to consider having foreign companies build nuclear power plants or railway lines in the UK, but the South Korean government would rather have everything in South Korea done by South Korean companies, even setting up a company to do it if necessary.

When Westerners open their labour markets to foreigners and foreign companies, what can they do if the foreigners do not reciprocate?

The worldwide median standard of living is a hell of endless hard labor and famine. It would be more egalitarian for outsourcing to continue until everyone is reduced to a level near that, but I'm still concerned about it, partly because nobody would have the luxury of accomplishing anything meaningful.

But it does not necessary produce a net-benefit to the US, since the trade off is cheaper goods but fewer American jobs.

Americans get more goods and services, and have to work less to get them? How is this not a net benefit to the US?

Pls check out the point I make above in response to slurgfest

I disagree. The app economy has changed that and is creating jobs. Let me give you an example. An American has a great idea, but does not have the money to hire an expensive or the skills to develop an app. He gets the app developed in a lower cost company, and the app becomes hugely successful.

Now the same person ends up hiring more designers and marketing folks in US. That person has more discretionary income that is spent locally. The technology companies like Apple, Google and a lot of smaller ones end up hiring more people.

We have had a lot of clients who have done well and had the same path. I was deeply moved when one of our US clients told me that the app we had developed helped him pay the bills during the darkest days of the 2008 recession.

People need to understand this debate better

1. The app economy has democratised the idea to customer strategy. Outsourcing here provides a huge leverage. This is not like some IT department cutting down jobs and moving them to lower cost places.

2. The world is flat now, in terms of skills and not costs.

3. More non US companies are hiring in America and setting up offices there. We are doing the same.

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