You need to consider another element in this. The outsourcing of knowledge work is different from the normal working of a transnational or multinational corporation in the third world.

When knowledge work is outsourced, there is a real transfer of skills. People take on projects that they wouldn’t even have been able to envision, let alone execute, without a foreign order. Once they do that kind of work, it equips them with the skills and perspective to do similar projects for local clients. And often, the wages that are being earned by doing work for foreign clients are used to enable lower rates for local clients.

This makes the exploitation part of outsourcing a little less severe. And much less severe than that of the kind of corporation that uses up natural resources in the third world, while retaining most of the profits.

That said, while outsourcing increases the income in the third world, it also allows first world clients to maintain the income gap between first and third world. So it’s not as simple as to say “well, we pay them better than what they’d get otherwise.”

Cheers.