Dear Ryan,

I’m actually not Alberto. I’m actually Vikash Veerbradum from Mauritius and I’ve been hired to respond on behalf of Alberto. I’ve done some outsourcing work for him over the years and I gather from his instructions that he has more important things to do than to respond to you today (given his hectic schedule). As you will note I have only decent written communication skills in English (my native language is Creole) – most of which skills I gained during several internships in Australia. Unfortunately my student visa expired there and I had to return to my island country. Also, I was unable to obtain my permanent residency overseas so I am back to square one, so to speak.

Needless to say I don’t think Alberto’s idea is all that great in this instance. He outsourced his response to you to me. All I had to do was read the post in question – well done by the way – and reply as though I were Alberto. (That has always been difficult in the past – Alberto is much older than I am, though not wiser, as I often tell him jokingly, and I frankly lack his fighting passion.) Anyway, this is what you get for 20 bucks, which at today’s dollar exchange rate should make me stop right about here…only joking, Alberto!

I think your points are well made, Ryan, but they are somewhat misguided, if not slightly Machiavellian. Your cost-benefit analysis is impeccable. If you can get someone to do your work for a fifth or a tenth of what you might have to pay for it in your market you are smartly one-step ahead of the game. Re-reading the posts, however, it is obvious that you missed part of the point. It is whether you have ethically determined that what you paid the Argentinians for their Herculean efforts – to follow your example, not Alberto´s as you misstated in your response – is something you have ethically and morally determined to be “right” in the greatest meaning of that term.

It seems you have not. Have you determined whether $15 an hour in Argentina—it is pretty good pay rate in Mauritius, I must say— , without more, is a respectable salary base for a professional? That covers, I presume, the Argentineans’ health benefits, retirement accounts and vacation fund. No? Again, I presume that as an employer making a good profit on your outsourcing does not make you responsible for those kinds of benefits. There seems to me, most respectfully, that there is a lot of rhetoric on the issue of what great things foreign investment does to stimulate otherwise poverty-stricken regions. Those of us that work for less do so because we lack choices and opportunities, not because we are dumber. We’re not dumber, we’re just poorer.

But please allow me to continue stating the obvious. Most outsourcing, at least in my experience, is not done on an individual basis by guys like me. Nor is most outsourcing being done by nice guys like you. You see, it’s hard to buy a simple computer to have at home when a decent salary, at least here, is about $300 a month. (Never mind how those South Africans are coping while making $100 a month as one of the commenters noted! That wouldn’t include cable TV, would it?, ´cause in that case I’m moving to Durban tomorrow!)

As far as I know Apple isn’t giving away computers at those prices either.

Bottom line is that most techy outsourcing jobs—even in outsourcing paradises like India—are run by mini-corporations that can set up quite sophisticated shops with all sorts of telecommunications equipment. We cannot have that equipment at home. I’m not talking about sweat shops here, just shops that give work and keep decently educated people working for a couple hundred bucks a month. The assertion, of course, is that those prices are good enough for our standard of living and, hence, that we don’t need all the good “things” you guys need to enjoy life. That’s true, I’ll grant you that much. I don’t have a Mac (which reminds me, Alberto, that you must do better with your outsourcing equipment. This old Toshiba laptop will not last forever and we don’t have as many creative spare parts here as they do in Cuba.)

Nor are those corporations who give work necessarily nice guys like you or Alberto who know us by name or care about our minimum wage. No. I’ll stop. I’ll abstain from making cheap Bhopal metaphors.

In short, this is really not worth $20 bucks. Not even by our standard of living. Indeed, it isn’t even worth it by yours, Ryan. It is my duty, of course, to side with Alberto, whether or not I get paid “something” at this stage. I think outsourcing is here to stay and you have clearly shown why it will stay. You have written a thorough guide. But I’ll stop because even while in need I despise sycophants. I just think you should reflect on the subject just a bit more. (The “illuminating” article you cited was illuminating enough but quite lacking in this regard.) There ought to be just a little dash of nobility in all of this, lest we fall into the trap of creating some sort of self-righteous movement that doesn’t see that making sneakers for Nike for that great price, at any cost, at any age isn’t necessarily so helpful to certain communities. It isn’t.

Outsource responsibly, whatever that may mean.

Best regards, Vick