I've seen this too, and I've also seen the results. I'm highly confident that this trend will cause those companies that adopt it to suffer and that it won't n

I've seen this too, and I've also seen the results. I'm highly confident that this trend will cause those companies that adopt it to suffer and that it won't negatively impact the job market in the West. The reality is that there aren't enough people competent in tech roles in the entire world to serve the global need for people with those skillsets, and I encourage my employer to hire remote, from anywhere in the world, and pay a Western salary, to get the best talent possible to do the job. This is a different tactic than "offshoring", which is usually driven by bean counters without any regard to strategic alignment, work quality, or how it impacts customers and the long-term trajectory of the company/brand. There are enough companies and teams in tech like mine that hire people wherever they are that are competent, that companies focused on "offshoring" get people at a lower cost, but also at a significantly lower competency. That ratio used to be roughly equal, but as you pointed out the cost is roughly 1/2, however the competency is still around 1/6th.