This question is sometimes asked: aren't you just exporting British jobs? It's certainly an important question. There are numerous articles on the web discussing this issue e.g. http://www.computerworld.com/news/1999/story/0,11280,34929,00.html
The short answer is 'yes' but that is far from the end of the answer - there are several factors to take into account and here are some, in no particular order:
Firstly, literally hundreds of thousands of British (and American, French, German etc) jobs have continually been exported all throughout the last century - I am thinking of textiles, steel, ship making etc.
Secondly, some jobs have out-priced themselves in the UK. I probably would not have started an IT business in the UK because the massive costs would have made it too risky, unless I had a really great idea.
Thirdly, pratcially ALL software used on PCs these days is made offshore - by Windows in the USA !
Who benefits from this? WE do - the consumers in the West: lower overseas costs cause the price of goods to fall. THEY do - the employees overseas - they get a little share of Western wealth.
The only people who should feel threatened by this are Western programmers who have no 'added value' services to offer an employer such as analysis, project management, training and of course the ability to find developers who cost less than half they do.
No comments:
Post a Comment