DrewSaying the quiet part out loud, with pride
over_cloxJoke’s on them, I don’t have $5
𞋴𝛂𝛋𝛆I haven’t had $5 in 7 years
I think it’s fine to outsource some things overseas, but don’t criminally underpay them!
$5/hr is a decent wage in the Philippines. Minimum wage there is ~$11/day, so $5/hr is quite a bit more than minimum wage.
Minimum wage may not be the whole story, our minimum wage is $7.25 still and I dont think anyone believes that can be lived on here. The cost of living is more significant a measure of the pay’s fairness
Cost of living is also much lower in The Philippines vs the US. A quick search says a 1br studio near Manila costs ~₱6,500/month, which is ~$115/month. The same thing costs about 10-20x that here in the US in a city.
So $5/hr would be enough for a pretty nice lifestyle there, whereas it would be significantly below the poverty line here in the US.
Funny note on that: Went to stay with a friend in Manhattan back in '91. Stunned by the prices I asked, “How does anyone survive on minimum wage?!”
He laughed, “Man, nobody gets minimum wage here!”
I’m in a poor county in Florida. 6 years ago, jobs could be found at the very bottom, no more.
667The minimum wage in Philippines is ~$6 per day in the provincial regions (350Php). $5 per hour for 8 hours is damn well nearly a king’s ransom; equivalent to 2,200Php.
Damn wtf
Thank you. ITT: Bunch of spoiled, outraged clueless people.
Just ask my Pilipino wife if $5/hr. is good money back home. She stared at me for a beat, “Oh yeah! That is very good!”
You can live damned well on $40/day. Her ex went over there and took her whole family out to dinner at a nice restaurant in Manila. 12 people, $50 including a generous tip. I make $81K/yr. and I couldn’t take half that many people out to eat on a day’s pay.
ComradeSharkfuckerWow it’s almost like capitalisms profit motive encourages business’s to exploit the less fortunate because not doing so puts your business at a disadvantage.
Explain how $5/hr. is exploiting a Pilipino. I’ll wait.
EDIT: I note there are no explanations. My wife says it’s damned good pay back home. And for you economic geniuses, $5 there buys 2-4 times what it buys in America. $10-$20/hr. is exploitative? Beats American minimum wage by a long shot.
Anyway, we’re retiring there. I’ll live like a king on the little I’ve saved. Y’all keep paying 2-4x for the same loaf of bread and bottle of milk.
$5 an hour is an exploitative wage, it fundamentally does not matter the country we’re talking about. And there are no explanations because you gave 0 effort except for inviting an argument and no one was in the mood.
$5 in the Philippines probably has vastly more purchasing power than it does in the United States. If you’re supposed to pay them the same salary as to someone working in the US then why not just hire an American and have the dude in Philippines go back to picking coconuts for $2 and hour or something. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Philipino worker is more than happy with their salary and you might even be able to employ several people for the same amount of money.
This same effect applies to charities aswell. Donating money to some poor african country helps many more people than it does when given to a local charity.
Sure yes short term it is probably a good option for the average Filipino or any other person taking an American job in a foreign country for less money than that company would pay an American because yeah it does pay relatively well in their situation. However, it takes advantage of their material situation to pay them monetarily less than they would be paid in the US. Essentially it uses the fact that they need the money more (their demand) to pay them less. Is this not similar to paying any American poor person less because they need it more?
Regardless of how you feel about the morality of all that it’s fucking terrible for the Philippines. That Filipino labor is not benefitting the Filipino economy it’s benefitting the US economy. This might not be so bad if they were being paid more or even up to the amount that they make for that American company (though this would never happen under capitalism bc a company needs profit) because at the very least that loss of labor power would be supplemented with equivalent monetary gain.
So in short, outsourced jobs takes advantage of poor people to pay them less and strips foreign economies of their labor power
Is this not similar to paying any American poor person less because they need it more?
No because the poor american still has to pay high US prices for everything they buy. You can’t live a decent life in the US with $5 an hour but you can in the Philippines where the minimum wage is around $10 a DAY. Another commentor in this thread told how their relative bought a restaurant dinner for 12 people for 50 bucks in the Philippines and that includes the tip.
That Filipino labor is not benefitting the Filipino economy it’s benefitting the US economy.
This is not entirely true either. That Philipino working for the US company spends their earnings in the Philippines and that benefits their economy.
LOL, I’m the guy you quoted. The arguments in here are straight childish, with a child’s view of how money works. They see $5/hr. and scream.
Summary of cost of living in Philippines:
A family of four estimated monthly costs are 1,935.7$ (108,196.2₱) without rent.
A single person estimated monthly costs are 559.5$ (31,274.4₱) without rent.
Cost of living in Philippines is, on average, 54.1% lower than in United States.
Rent in Philippines is, on average, 81.7% lower than in United States.
www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?…
And I question even those numbers! From what my wife and her friend’s American husbands have told me, and from the videos I’ve watched, it seems even cheaper than that.
Then there are the idiots saying we should flood the country with American dollars, blow up inflation and the wealth gap. Sound economic planning right there.
I understand your argument, but a living wage in the Phillipines is lower than a living wage in the US. As long as the employer is properly compensating their employees, I think it’s unfair to blame said employer for the Philippines’ economy. Even if this transaction is more beneficial to the US than the Phillipines, it would still benefit the Philippines, no? More outsourcing should mean a more trained labor force and greater purchasing power from exchanging USD for pesos.
Give it up. Buncha kids in here white knighting for Philipinos they don’t even know.
Showed my Pilipino wife your post (she doesn’t understand social media like lemmy):
“Who is this person? Why do they say these things? I do not understand. This is not true.”
LOL, she just shook her head and walked off.
Her son is working tech for Amazon and another for a different American firm. They’re WELL off in the Philippines. You should let them know they are not, in fact, doing well.
This might not be so bad if they were being paid more or even up to the amount that they make for that American company
Well hell yeah! Let’s flood the country with American dollars, spike inflation through the roof and exacerbate the wealth gap. You should be running the Federal Reserve.
Globalism doesn’t really disturb people the way it used to.