NYCPHP Meetup

[Alan T. Miller]

> I recently posted a help wanted ad on
> Craigslist for an internship with
> a modest stipend ($500 per month).
> I got over 100 responses, some from
> people with MBAs and Computer
> Engineering degrees.

It is like I said before, if you are willing to work for less than you are
worth you have just lost the game. I know that if you are funding your own
education, an MBA or engineering degree can cost you thousands of dollars in
student loans, what a tragedy that people who have spent upwards of $40,000
to $80,000 for an education are willing to work for $500 a month. Kind of
makes the whole thing seem pointless when McDonalds pays more than that to
high school students with no education at all to flib burgers and serve
french fries.

Of course the idea of working the internship is to get expereince so you can
get a real job, but if the real jobs are nonexistent and / or outsourced,
what again I ask is the point? This is why I never reccomend someone get
into this line of work unless they are willing to relocate to India,
Bulgaria, Romaina or elsewhere.

> During the last three hundred years,
> India has undergone great pains and
> great poverty. If the free-market
> system means that millions of fellow
> Indians can be liften out of poverty,
> then what's so bad about it?

I have nothing against people in India, or elsewhere who take advantage of
outsourcing. Hurrah for them. I only wish there was a country that was
willing to outsource work to us on the same level. Of course you cannot
blame someone in India for taking advantage of the money they can earn...
great for them. For those however that have staked there life work in the
field, it is not so easy to see it all go away and start over once again.

> Well - I just wonder if the free
> market system is a win-win or a
> win-lose system. If it is a win-lose
> system, I should just hire 5 people
> in India, and start marketing like
> crazy here in New York.
> "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em", right?

It seems that if you want to remain competative you really have no choice. I
have already come to that conclusion myself. I am a Marxist at heart anyway,
so for me, it has always been a win-lose system. Unless of course you are
not on the butt end of things trying to be a worker.

> But what about the immediacy
> of dealing with local businesses?
> What about the communication
> difficulties that arise from having
> to use the phone and instant
> messenger instead of meeting face to face?

When your labor comes at 1/10 the cost, these are problems often seen as
worth it. Think about it, you get rid of 10 programmers or high tech workers
at $60,000 a year, and replace them with ten at $12,000 a year, you just
saved $480,000 a year, with that money you hire 3 people at $35,000 a year
to deal with these issues. Then you can brag about all the jobs you created,
and brush aside the fact that you lost 10.

Of course this only works for a short while, once your competition does the
same thing, now you may not make enough money to pay your three at $35,000 a
year due to the competative demands driving prices down, but that cost will
be offset by the fact that people in India will once again have lowered
there own fees due to the intense competition once that market is flooded
with a pool of tech workers that outnumber the tech jobs.

In other words for the same reasons you can get an intern here for $500 a
month, tech workers in India today who enjoy $12,000 a year will eventually
find themselves in the same boat having to lower their own wages.

> And why should I pay someone in
> India $600 per month to work remotely,
> when I can get a qualified intern for
> $500 per month here in New York?

If you can keep that qualified Intern long term sounds like a great plan,
but can you really afford to live in New York for $500 a month? How long can
that last?

> If this great capitalist system can
> only have a few winners, I want to
> be among those selfish few.
> I know - it sounds crass and
> stupid, but I don't want to be among
> the dazed people sleeping in the
> subway station, or those digging
> through trash cans, or those pushing
> around carts loaded with recyclables
> so that they can exchange them for food.

Now you truly understand how the system works, capitalism is like a big
pyramyd scheme. There can only be a few winners by its very nature, just
make sure you get in early so you can exploit it for all its worth. Is this
sinicle? Perhaps but until things are changed for the better, how else is
one to survive. I don't want to be eating out of a garbage can anytime soon.

> I have come to the realization
> that in this city - and perhaps
> anywhere else in the world -
> it's every man for himself. If
> I were to be run over
> by a truck, people would probably
> step over me.

Not only that, they will most likely scoff at you for being in their way
too.

> So why should people in India not
> seize the chance for a better life?
> Who cares if people like me think
> that downward wage pressure from
> outsourcing could affect me negatively?

Poeple in India should exploit the status quo to the fullest and enjoy it as
long as they can, for it will only be a matter of time before cheaper labor
is found elsewhere and the opportunity will be gone for them.