alt text: 18 of our 40 employees are located in the Philippines. Insanely competent, great judgement, and $5 per hour. If you run a small business and don’t have overseas help you’re at a disadvantage
You must log in or register to comment.
This part has never been quiet.
Wow it’s almost like capitalisms profit motive encourages businesses to exploit the less fortunate because not doing so puts your business at a disadvantage.
$5 in the Philippines probably has vastly more purchasing power than it does in the United States. If you’re supposed to pay them the same salary as to someone working in the US then why not just hire an American and have the dude in Philippines go back to picking coconuts for $2 and hour or something. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Philipino worker is more than happy with their salary and you might even be able to employ several people for the same amount of money.
This same effect applies to charities aswell. Donating money to some poor african country helps many more people than it does when given to a local charity.
Sure yes short term it is probably a good option for the average Filipino or any other person taking an American job in a foreign country for less money than that company would pay an American because yeah it does pay relatively well in their situation. However, it takes advantage of their material situation to pay them monetarily less than they would be paid in the US. Essentially it uses the fact that they need the money more (their demand) to pay them less. Is this not similar to paying any American poor person less because they need it more?
Regardless of how you feel about the morality of all that it’s fucking terrible for the Philippines. That Filipino labor is not benefitting the Filipino economy it’s benefitting the US economy. This might not be so bad if they were being paid more or even up to the amount that they make for that American company (though this would never happen under capitalism bc a company needs profit) because at the very least that loss of labor power would be supplemented with equivalent monetary gain.
So in short, outsourced jobs takes advantage of poor people to pay them less and strips foreign economies of their labor power
Is this not similar to paying any American poor person less because they need it more?
No because the poor american still has to pay high US prices for everything they buy. You can’t live a decent life in the US with $5 an hour but you can in the Philippines where the minimum wage is around $10 a DAY. Another commentor in this thread told how their relative bought a restaurant dinner for 12 people for 50 bucks in the Philippines and that includes the tip.
That Filipino labor is not benefitting the Filipino economy it’s benefitting the US economy.
This is not entirely true either. That Philipino working for the US company spends their earnings in the Philippines and that benefits their economy.
My uncle visited the Philippines. When he came back he went on and on, “They’re poor, some don’t have running water and they got dirt for floors. They work so hard though, and they’re so loyal. I wish I could find people like that here in the states. Not people constantly asking for more. People who are happy with what they have and are loyal. You can’t find anyone loyal to anything but themselves here.”
I nearly vomited hearing that shit.
“Why won’t people just make me rich here without worrying about their piece of the pie. I don’t have enough luxury vehicles. My house isn’t a castle like it should be.” Was all I heard.
It’s disgusting.
In Canada we import people to work the jobs deemed beneath Canadians… then they’re put up in company housing.
Pretty much modern day slave trade. The money doesn’t even stay in the country, a lot of it is remitted back home to their families.
Uhhh… slaves didn’t get paid at all.
Allowing people to immigrate into a developed country, make way more money than they would at home, get put up in company housing, and send the majority of the money back to their families seems like a pretty good deal for all parties.
I think it’s fine to outsource some things overseas, but don’t criminally underpay them!
$5/hr is a decent wage in the Philippines. Minimum wage there is ~$11/day, so $5/hr is quite a bit more than minimum wage.
Their labor creates expensive value in an expensive market. Share accordingly.
“It’s a great pay where they are” argument is bullshit.
Exactly this. If they are making the same product as a local team that generates the same revenue, you’re just taking a bigger slice of their surplus value. In other words, exploiting them harder.
