Adam Nelson on Offshoring

Adam Nelson in his article on offshoring at CodeProject says

First, outsourcing work to offshore workers who are cheaper and equally capable as domestic workers makes good financial sense, and is not inherently immoral.

Second, corporations owe no duty of loyalty or employment to their employees, and can (indeed, should) seek the most efficient and effective way to perform a given task, regardless of physical location.

Third, offshore outsourcing of programming jobs is potentially perilous domestic companies' bottom lines, and must be considered in terms of total qualitative and quantitative cost, not simply the US$ 20,000/year the Indian programmer makes.

Fourth, an industrious domestic programmer concerned about competition from offshore coders must resist the temptation to sulk and blame others, and should instead endeavor to differentiate himself such that offshore coders cannot compete with him.

If you look at it, outsourcing is actually good for the economies of both the countries that are involved. But then explaining the long term economic benefits is not easy when your audiences is facing a more immediate threat of losing jobs.