>The hypothesis that "all smart Indian programmers are in the US" is, well, somewhat naive.
It sure is, which is why no one is saying that. I said the west (that's not just the US, you know?).
>you are competing with programmers in Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Holland, Germany, New Zealand and so on.
I already am. Every one of them that is willing to move where I live. The only difference is that neither they, nor I would have to move if we moved to telecommuting. This would depress the value of labor somewhat because commute hassles are figured into the current price, but I don't believe we would be looking at a long term 50% decrease.
>and in many cases require a living wage below that found in the US.
Irrelevant. Market prices are set based on perceived value of the good or service. Not what it costs to produce or anything like that.
> But are you still the best if we expand the pool to include a billion people?
No of course not, but we're not all competing for one job. If all programming jobs became telecommuting jobs then I would be competing with everyone but for every job.
It sure is, which is why no one is saying that. I said the west (that's not just the US, you know?).
>you are competing with programmers in Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Holland, Germany, New Zealand and so on.
I already am. Every one of them that is willing to move where I live. The only difference is that neither they, nor I would have to move if we moved to telecommuting. This would depress the value of labor somewhat because commute hassles are figured into the current price, but I don't believe we would be looking at a long term 50% decrease.
>and in many cases require a living wage below that found in the US.
Irrelevant. Market prices are set based on perceived value of the good or service. Not what it costs to produce or anything like that.
> But are you still the best if we expand the pool to include a billion people?
No of course not, but we're not all competing for one job. If all programming jobs became telecommuting jobs then I would be competing with everyone but for every job.