February 13, 2004

• This month's Wired has a good article on this.
• I relate stories of American programmers collecting unemployment, declaring bankruptcy, even contemplating suicide - because they can't compete with people willing to work for one-sixth of their wages. This will be a hot topic for a long time to come. Even though the initial launch was not a success, don
• Hey, India! Klaatu barada nikto!
• I kept finding extra stuff as I was writing this, so you getting hree comments in one: 1. This is interesting. A top White House economic adviser has issued what amounts to a public apology after appearing to praise the movement of US jobs overseas. 2. A Guardian column on this topic. If you live in a rich nation in the English-speaking world, and most of your work involves a computer or a telephone, don't expect to have a job in five years' time. Almost every large company which relies upon remote transactions is starting to dump its workers and hire a cheaper labour force overseas. All those concerned about economic justice and the distribution of wealth at home should despair. All those concerned about global justice and the distribution of wealth around the world should rejoice. As we are, by and large, the same people, we have a problem. 3. An actual comment of mine: Recently, Britain's economy has been pretty strong, and the number of unemployed is at its lowest levels for 30 years or more, all the more surprising when compared to the economies and the unemployment rates in the other major EU economies (links to an excel file, sorry). A large part of the low unemployment levels here was down to the huge boom in call centres and call centre jobs. Shitty low paid jobs in the main, but they have filled the gaps left in the job market by almost the entire British manufacturing industry moving overseas over the last 15 years or so, and, along with shops (and the call centres) moving towards 24 hour opening, the jobless total, over the last 5 years or so, has kept on falling, and Britain, for the first time since the 70's, actually has most of its workforce working (in the 80's it got up to almost 4 million unemployed claiming benefits (links to a pdf file) compared to just under 1 million currently). If this job market disappears, Britain would be left with rising unmployment levels, leaving millions of people unable to pay off their debts, not to mention the government collecting less tax money, and having more benefits to pay. When you consider our national debt, this isn't too healthy, and, quite possibly, is actively dangerous. I'm not an economist, though (economics, actually, is one topic I really can't understand - there seems to be something slightly too elusive about it for my mind to grasp), so this might all be so much bullshit.

• All those concerned about global justice and the distribution of wealth around the world should rejoice.

  That would be nice, except that it mostly appears untrue. India is losing work to places like the Phillipines and Vietnam. It looks more like a race to the bottom, with a global economy that looks mostly like much of Central America: a thin layer of extreme wealth, a very narrow middle class, and a lot of poor people. This is exacerbated by the fact that much transfer of labour ultimately ends up in nations like China and Vietnam, where the ability of workers to have their boats lifted by the tide is ultimately constrained by authoritarian governments. An Indian worker may negotiate her salary upward if she is in demand. A Chinese worker may not, unless his government permits.