How much did you pay for your computer? I imagine a fraction of what it would have cost had it not been for outsourcing.

Originally Posted by keepevery1happy

Well the argument i have is that should a business operating overseas change its moral and pay standards to suit the hosting country. I on the 'no' side.

I think the main reason why a business outsource overseas is becuae to cut production cost and if they were to change their pay standards they would lose money thus not making much of a difference of outsourcing.

So if you guys and ladies could give me some points towards as to why they should NOT change their moral and pay standards it would help alot. People who thinks they should change are welcome to reply to.

Thx

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As far as answering your post is concerned, I think you're wrong; companies operating overseas, in particular in third world countries, should keep their pay and other employment conditions in line with those of the country concerned. There are several reasons for this, not least the cost aspect which Jacques has rightly mentioned, but because offering differential wage rates can cause significant social unrest in a country, it can cause a mass of problems for local companies whose workers see it as grossly unfair, and perhaps even more importantly, what rights do we have to interfere in the internal working conditions and wage structures of other countries? That should be the sole right of the government of the country concerned.

How would we like it here if say American firms operating in the UK all suddenly demanded that we pay workers in their companies 50% more than those doing the equivalent jobs in British owned companies? Think about it from that point of view instead. Yes, to us the wage levels in many third world countries might seem very low, but we're looking at them from our own value perspective, not from theirs. $5 a day might represent abysmal poverty for you or for me, but for a worker living in a poor third world country it can be quite normal and livable on, especially when you consider the vastly lower costs of living there.

It's the only reason companies actually outsource, if they had to keep their normal pay and work standards, then they'd stay in their own country. What's more it really isn't practical to suddenly increase costs on the majority of goods, computers, clothing, furniture, pretty much everything would skyrocket in price. One thing the Communists have got right is that in order for capitalism and consumerism to survive, somebody must be exploited. This will continue until robots take over the majority of labour.

Originally Posted by DC

It's the only reason companies actually outsource, if they had to keep their normal pay and work standards, then they'd stay in their own country. What's more it really isn't practical to suddenly increase costs on the majority of goods, computers, clothing, furniture, pretty much everything would skyrocket in price. One thing the Communists have got right is that in order for capitalism and consumerism to survive, somebody must be exploited. This will continue until robots take over the majority of labour.

As a general observation, that rather depends on your definition of exploiting. I quite agree that to us, paying workers in India or Indonesia or wherever just a few dollars a day for work which we might have to pay 20 times as much if carried out at home, might seem like exploitation, but if it's in line with the norms of the country concerned, it isn't. By saying that I'm not condoning the conditions some of these people live and work in, they're sometimes appalling - I've been through some of the Mumbai slums - but at least by offering them work, regardless of how exploitative is might seem to us, we're actually helping those people and their families significantly.

As a complete aside, I was amazed at how happy many of the people I saw in the Munbai slums were, and how 'normal' their lives were despite the conditions under which they lived. The biggest thing which stuck in my mind though (apart from the almost total lack of sanitation!) was the sense of community which had developed, and the pride that people took in their tiny ramshackle corrugated iron, flattened tin can and canvas houses.