I think that's the future, whether we want it or not... We've already been seeing that with respect to call centers and outsourcing tech stuff for decades. It's

I think that's the future, whether we want it or not... We've already been seeing that with respect to call centers and outsourcing tech stuff for decades. It's only a matter of time before we become a truly globalized economy where any white-collar job can be done regardless of location. I think a more interesting dynamic that would arise out of this is how compensation works. Right now, someone in San Francisco makes a bajillion times what someone doing the same work in Kalamazoo makes. If businesses can seamlessly hire someone in Kalamazoo for a fraction of the price, why wouldn't they? They would! and should! But then what happens to the person in the San Francisco Bay Area? Not just the person, but what happens to the entire area? Will all the techies in SF start moving to cheaper places to live? Or will they try and stay in SF? What will happen to housing prices or food prices? Will gentrification start reversing itself? This sort of leads into an off-topic conversation, but I'll mention it because I'm personally fascinated by it. Right now, I get paid X dollars per year because the business has decided that I generate more than that in revenue somehow, and some value of that $X is due to my geographic location (San Francisco). If I were able to work remotely and then decide I don't want to live in SF any longer and move to, say, Jackson, Mississippi, then what would happen to my pay? The company would likely try and cut my pay as a "cost of living" adjustment. But that's absurd, right? I was worth X dollars/yr in SF, and I'm still worth X dollars/yr regardless of whether I'm in an office in SF or in a cabin in Alaska or a coffeeshop in Vietnam. I have counterparts in an office on the other side of the country that make half what I make for the same work, all because they live in a particular geographic area. But that's dumb. We generate the same amount of revenue from the company (theoretically) regardless of our geographic area. But because they live in a place with a lower COL, they get paid less and the company makes more off of them. The whole idea is absurd in a number of levels. I digress, but to turn this back to your point: if this suddenly does happen, what happens to "COL adjustments"? Are they still a thing? Wouldn't I be able to say that I'm worth X dollars whether I'm based in Iowa City vs NYC? Wouldn't everyone be able to do that? Is it a foregone conclusion that it's a race to the bottom, or would wages and jobs stabilize into some sort of equilibrium? Maybe $500k salaries go away, but they wouldn't necessarily fall down to $50k salaries, and in fact might stabilize somewhere closer to $150k, and that's more than enough for most people in the USA to live decently. (I made up those numbers totally out of my ass, but it's the point that matters, not the numbers.) Anyway... interesting things to think about.