The world is Flat

Been reading Thomas Friedman's "The world is Flat" version 3.0 for some time now. This book is about outsourcing mainly, and how it is changing the world. He touches on many facets of the issue. and does a fairly good job on many points. Where he does a poor job however is when it comes to describing the way outsourcing companies take advantage of their employees.

I work for an outsourcing company right now, and it provides the main source of my income. But the company is away from offering a good wage. I have worked for other outsourcing companies before and they were even worse.

Friedman will leave you with the idea that if you are earning 100 dollars as a software programmer in some third world country, that is a good wage for you. He will contrast that with the average wage being payed in the country. What he won't talk to you about is that on a 100 dollars a month you will lead a very different lifestyle than what you would lead were you earning 5,000 dollars a month. He won't tell you that you won't be able to afford basic food, that you will be cutting on necessities and eating rice or one meal a day.

I don't earn a hundred dollars but my salary is far from 5,000. I do work making software and work with people from America. They do the same job that I do, but for some reason just because I am not living in a first world country I would earn less and thus live worse off than them.

The idea that 5,000 dollars in america is the equivalent of 100 dollars in india or a 1000 dollars in brazil etc... is 100 percent wrong. The price of food is everywhere the same, the reason why people can make it through the day in one country on a 100 dollars is because of the quality of the food. In america you wouldn't consider yourself well fed if your main source of food was wheat.

Of course some might argue that there is a difference in rent. This is largely true, but still it doesn't justify the wage difference between 100 dollars and 5,000 dollars.

More to come...