What do you propose? Don't hire from cheap places or pay them the same rate as expensive places? If companies pays the same as expensive places, why would they hire from cheaper places?
See I'm actually interested in a good-faith discussion of this topic, not a screaming match. Does anyone who isn't going to scream have something to say about whether this is actually an exploitative practice?
We currently have a situation (we use cheaper labor in developing countries to make stuff more cheaply). Some take issue with this for various reasons like exploitation, depriving local labor force of work etc. I genuinely would like to hear some viable alternatives.
The common response is "just pay them more". But that doesn't work in most situations. So what do we do?
Hmm, interesting. I wonder if you could get creative with employment benefits Of course, if you're not actively applying geopolitical pressure to keep their labor cheap, and it's a mutually consentual agreement, maybe we can just say "it's not exploitative".
That certainly would be great, but is it realistic?
Manufacturing for example, is heavily outsourced to cheaper locations. We can certainly have all the tshirts we buy in the US made in the US. Hire locally, create jobs, pay a thriving wage etc.
Then the tshirts will cost more. You might be ok with that, but will the rest of the population? Or will they opt to buy the $10 tshirts made in China? Do we impose heavy duties on anything imported, so the domestic products are price competitive? What about export markets? Will Europe buy our $50 tshirts over the $10 Chinese made tshirts?
Paying local workers a thriving wage would be great, and we certainly do it for many sectors (tech for example). I just don't know if it's workable for a lot of things.
- Pay your local workers livable wages and dont fuck the local population. Where are most of the customers located?
- If you want to hire foreign workers pay them the same or a substantial fraction of your local workers. If they are good their nationality should not matter.
- Hire and pay directly not through intermediates, dont wash your hands off from all the regulations you need to comply with.
Here we have a company which is effectively paying 10-20% of what a local worker would get (Net Salaries+Taxes+Compliance Requirements,etc). Are they going to charge for their product 10% of the US price in the Philippines?
Many companies want the "good things" about globalization: Access to cheap, unregulated workforce, free-flow of capitals, lack of responsibility for any externality created (are they contributing to social security?) but complain about the other side: worldwide liability, open borders, different regulations.
How much is a substantial fraction and who determines that? Is it a simple fraction or does it depend on the market and competitive landscape? Is it something governments should regulate or should consumers vote with their wallets?
Companies should adhere to regulations though, no arguments there.
> How much is a substantial fraction and who determines that
I determine that and I say +80% , you dont get weasel out of this with useless semantic distinctions.
> Is it a simple fraction
As oppose to a "complex" one?
> Is it something governments should regulate or should consumers vote with their wallets?
The company owners should be ethical enough to pay that.
Do you use this kind of sophistry to justify your compensation or what you charge for your product or service? I highly suspect that is not the case. Easy peasy to play Aristotle when it is about poor working-people living money.
Do you not buy anything made overseas that pays workers less than 80% of some us based rate? You don’t own an iPhone I assume? You don’t own anything with an intel in it?
If you have to pay 80% of the local wages it's not worth outsourcing and the Philippine economy loses out. Additionally it would completely mess up the Philippine economy. Suddenly people would rather work in a call centre than, for example, become a doctor because the salaries would be high and barrier to entry low.
