Probably, but at what price? I stopped programming PHP when one of my clients asked me what I offered that somebody from India that he could hire for $3/hr didn't. While I was standing in his office, face-to-face.
There's nothing wrong with hiring $3/hr workers (I now do it myself, though not for programming.) But, as time goes forward and we develop more ways for the rest of the world to get online, we're going to have to realize that many programmers won't make it, either, especially if they expect to be paid San Francisco wages for India work.
There's nothing wrong with hiring $3/hr workers (I now do it myself, though not for programming.) But, as time goes forward and we develop more ways for the rest of the world to get online, we're going to have to realize that many programmers won't make it, either, especially if they expect to be paid San Francisco wages for India work.
You have the advantage of a reputation and similar culture. Plus, your employer can call you while you're awake, while not rudely waking up Indian programmers in the middle of the night. Indian programmers might not be any good at all or wishes to understand your need. They probably just bid on many projects without reading the requirement.
Beside, it's only temporary. The living standard will goes up and Indians will demand higher wages to support their rising expenses.
I interviewed at a small dot com where the owner told me essentially the same thing after not hiring me based on salary requirements.
I take satisfaction in noting that three years later his company's site is essentially still where it was then, with none of his plans actually implemented.
Guess those cheaper programmers didn't work out so well.
So you didn't know what your value was. That says more about you than outsourcing or anything else.
What you should have been able to say is that that $3/hr Indian worker doesn't have the experience (and therefor level of skill) that you do. If he did it's extremely unlikely that he would continue to work for $3/hr. Sure, maybe he can live a comfortable life on $3/hr in India, but if he leverages his experience to move to a first world country to make money he can become rich (provided he lives frugally in said first world country and invests his money back home). Which is why so many do it.
You coulda said "well, what are you worth per hour? Because that outsourced worker actually costs that + $3/hr when you consider the detailed spec writing you'll have to do when there's not someone in your office who knows your company and your industry and you can just talk to".
The india example has nothing to do with machines but rather global wealth disparity. The india problem as in your anecdote will disappear whenever this wealth gap closes.
The article is discussing something entirely different.
IMO programmers will never go out of style until we have real AI. And when we have real AI all humans will be last season's sentience.
There's nothing wrong with hiring $3/hr workers (I now do it myself, though not for programming.) But, as time goes forward and we develop more ways for the rest of the world to get online, we're going to have to realize that many programmers won't make it, either, especially if they expect to be paid San Francisco wages for India work.