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A Thoughtful Look at Indian Outsourcing
thefinite writes "This article needs to be read by anyone interested in the outsourcing of IT jobs to India, no matter your opinion of it. It dispels some rumors (for example, if Indian IT companies do such bad work, why are over half of Carnegie Mellon's highest-rated programming companies Indian?). It addresses all of the arguments. Perhaps most importantly, it adds faces to the problem. It not only tells us about the American programmers who are out of jobs, but also about the Indians who are getting them. In the end of it, this is what Free Trade is about: people. This article makes that clear."
You obviously don't know crap about economic theory. Free trade relies on the idea of comparative advantage, that one place is inherently better at doing something than another. When Indian programmers are just as good as American programmers and there's no transport cost (facilitated by internet transmission of code), then it really is a race to the bottom to see who can pay the least for the samee service. There's no advantage to hiring US programmers, so it goes to India! In short, we're screwed! And, as posted earlier, it's a one way ticket! We can't get visas to work in India, and even if we could, it would be for 1/6th of what a programmer would make here! So don't give me bull about capitalism. This isn't a debate about capitalism v. socialism. It's protectionism v. free trade, and right now free trade is winning and the American programmer is losing.
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
Indian law is no different from American law in this matter. You're welcome to visit India, but if you want to work in India, you need a work permit. These are granted as a matter of course when the sponsoring company files the paperwork.
One major difference is that while in America, the LCA (Labor Condition Application) states that the H1-B applicant will receive a salary *equal to or in excess* of the prevailing wage for that job category in that region, in India, there is a reverse certification that the wages paid will be *less than or equal to* a certain constitutional ceiling, traditionally the same as the wage paid to the President of India, which is about $1100 per month. It's an archaic law that dates back to British times and when foreign exchange was a scarce commodity, and exceptions can be made, but that's how it is.
Americans (or any other alien) *can* work in India, if they're willing to work for about $12k/year. Above that, it requires more paperwork and approvals, but no reason that it can't be done.