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There are also legal and tax considerations to using a foreign programmer over a local one. Pretty quickly, many companies will discover the pitfalls to outsour

There are also legal and tax considerations to using a foreign programmer over a local one. Pretty quickly, many companies will discover the pitfalls to outsourcing. Among the big consequences: you lose R&D tax credits. The language and skill barrier is also pretty big; most companies that outsource end up spending so much money on QC that they barely save anything at all. It's theoretically possible to find good programmers in the Philippines as opposed to locally. But seeing as how finding local programmers is still not a solved issue, expanding the job pool to include the entire world isn't going to make that task any easier.

beambot 6y ago
> But seeing as how finding local programmers is still not a solved issue They've made it pretty clear that they won't be looking for local programers. They're looking domestically. Presumably, the same processes used to hire remote domestic programmers will be equally applicable for most remote non-domestic workers too.
dheera 6y ago
> you lose R&D tax credits Aren't those negligible compared to the salary gap?
future_unclear 6y ago
> Pretty quickly, many companies will discover the pitfalls to outsourcing. Probably true, however by then they will already have made the decision and it will be priced in to the company’s stock. The System is replete with the consequences of bad short-term decisions that have become more or less locked in. $200k vs $<20k. It’s an extremely large gap to be filled. Surely the people who spend their days looking at numbers on spreadsheets will see this gap and try to take as much advantage of it as they possibly can, and surely the market will reward the massive cuts in operating costs.
- nikitaga 6y ago
  They could do outsourcing today, yesterday, and 10 years ago just as well. Nothing changed, structurally or technologically (covid is neither), for outsourcing to work better now than it used to be so far. There will always be companies who need to learn on their own how $20K developers are different from $200K developers and what investing in either means 10 years down the road. By the way, good developers with good English and good communication skills can easily earn MUCH more than $20K even today by working remotely. Already today in most countries there are almost no barriers to earning multiples of their national averages other than one's own skills and attitude. And yet dev salaries in America are as high as ever. The industry seems to be growing faster than the labour force even despite globalization, and I don't think that trend will reverse anytime soon. We're still shoving software into more places, industries, and processes, and making it all more complicated.
AmericanChopper 6y ago
It’s pretty bold to assume that local devs are that much better. The high paid SV companies might do better than most at attracting talent, but the average developer team in the US is pretty terrible. I’ve worked in many organisations as a contractor, and the number of completely brain dead software engineers who do little more than fill seats and collect checks is astonishing. An average developer from Manila would struggle to do worse.

beambot 6y ago

> But seeing as how finding local programmers is still not a solved issue They've made it pretty clear that they won't be looking for local programers. They're looking domestically. Presumably, the same processes used to hire remote domestic programmers will be equally applicable for most remote non-domestic workers too.

dheera 6y ago

> you lose R&D tax credits Aren't those negligible compared to the salary gap?

future_unclear 6y ago

> Pretty quickly, many companies will discover the pitfalls to outsourcing. Probably true, however by then they will already have made the decision and it will be priced in to the company’s stock. The System is replete with the consequences of bad short-term decisions that have become more or less locked in. $200k vs $<20k. It’s an extremely large gap to be filled. Surely the people who spend their days looking at numbers on spreadsheets will see this gap and try to take as much advantage of it as they possibly can, and surely the market will reward the massive cuts in operating costs.

nikitaga 6y ago
They could do outsourcing today, yesterday, and 10 years ago just as well. Nothing changed, structurally or technologically (covid is neither), for outsourcing to work better now than it used to be so far. There will always be companies who need to learn on their own how $20K developers are different from $200K developers and what investing in either means 10 years down the road. By the way, good developers with good English and good communication skills can easily earn MUCH more than $20K even today by working remotely. Already today in most countries there are almost no barriers to earning multiples of their national averages other than one's own skills and attitude. And yet dev salaries in America are as high as ever. The industry seems to be growing faster than the labour force even despite globalization, and I don't think that trend will reverse anytime soon. We're still shoving software into more places, industries, and processes, and making it all more complicated.

AmericanChopper 6y ago

It’s pretty bold to assume that local devs are that much better. The high paid SV companies might do better than most at attracting talent, but the average developer team in the US is pretty terrible. I’ve worked in many organisations as a contractor, and the number of completely brain dead software engineers who do little more than fill seats and collect checks is astonishing. An average developer from Manila would struggle to do worse.