has anybody else received this email.? I was astounded at the per hour rate.

"Dear Sir/Madam,

Greetings from Bangladesh.

We are a stock photo agency based in Bangladesh with Image Restoration service. We are capable of serving high quality digital image restoration in a volume level at very competitive price. We are basically serving for USA market as a subcontractor at the moment and looking for reliable partners to extend our service. We thought you would be interested of partnering with us as the potentiality of the business is very high for both of us.

We charge only US $ 2.00 per hour job and our turnaround time for delivering finished job is 24 hours. Since you are already in the business you can easily calculate the profit from this outsourcing for your business. You know, profit comes from the volume and offering low cost solution to your clients. We hope you would consider our proposal cordially.

As we are committed to our clients to maintain confidentiality of the images sent to us, we are not able to show you the samples of the jobs done by us. So we will be doing 5 digital files for free for you to demonstrate our quality. No obligation is required of continuing the business with us if you are not satisfied with the result.

Wish you a Prosperous and Happy New Year.

Best regards,

Jahangir Kabir
Sr. Executive,
Sales & Marketing"


Any comments?

Well, first off, I'd probably have deleted the email without opening it, so I'd never have seen it. ;) I agree with you, the rate sounds unbelievable. However, one probably has to look at it in terms of the exchange rate. I could only find a 2000 exchange rate for the Bangladesh rupee of US$1 costing 50 rupees, so 100 rupees per hour is probably quite a tidy sum.

Update: Bangladesh currency is now Taka, and $1 costs 58 taka
(source (http://pacific.commerce.ubc.ca/xr/rates.html))

Yes, I recieved that email and I get at least 1 like it every day - from overseas and the US.

The only reason I opened it was because it was from my web site and it was addressed to my help address which is available for customers to ask for quotes ect.

This is what I was referring to in the other thread about work. Ross Perot used to speak about all of this when he campaigned years ago. Now I'm not political at all but it has come to pass that the US corporate world HAS shipped, as usual, alot of work overseas. Now technology has enabled much more of that. Two dollars an hour for them is a mountain of money and for us...well, how we beat rates like that??? And five free samples to prove themselves? These people, although impoverished, are not stupid. Now what company can afford not to consider this proposal? I bet the temp agencies are doing this too. General Electric has begun to "migrate" their administrative workload to Kelly Services who is adroit at outsourcing work to telecommuters. Who are they sending it to? Legal firms in NYC have been outsourcing their word processing to offshore countries for years and years. Perhaps we're a little late in discovering this phenomenon? Go look at "E-Lance" and Monster, and all of the "free agent" sites, you'll gasp!!!!! I think what we have to do it to articulate what this "new information economy" is all about and how to exploit it because this is not going to go away.

Yes I did receive on of those e-mails yesterday...

I love the website stating that they give wholesale prices for 500-1000 restoration jobs! LOL I wonder of we can "group" our jobs together to get that super-low rate of $0.50 a job :)

As tempting (or misleading) as it sounds I have deleted it.

They say five free samples, right? How long will it be before people send them those five jobs, and then leave them, and then create a new identity, send five more samples for free, and so on and so forth? That is one way to get rid of all these offshore scroundrels once and for all. Just never use them for "paid" work. They'll get the idea pretty quick and go back into their huts. :)

Great Idea...

Let's see if they can do some of RetouchPRO's Challenges for free! Now that would be funny.

We could publicize the "Un-American" companies and individuals who do use them and boycott them globally? I feel that any individual or oganization which uses foreign labor to usurp the US economy should be banned from society.

I get these emails all the time and sometimes, especially when I get them from countries who openly support terrorism, I just want to say that No, I am not interested, and if I had enough work to need to outsource, I certainly would be giving the job to one of the many, many people in this country who are looking for work - most of them because of the attacks on 9/11.

I always try and hold my anger, and assume that this person is just and individual and I can't blame him for the actions of his government, so I usually just don't answer the email at all.

I still say that this is the result of NAFTA and globalization. However, it's an individual choice what to do with it. Personally it sickens me. In addition, individuals overseas who do business this way avoid/evade all US law and financial control, nor do they pay taxes. They contribute nothing at all to the growth or welfare of the US economy or it's people. There is more to a society than just making money. Most of these countries hate the US anyway, why should we have anything to do with them? It really bothers me that I am forced to be a freelancer because US corporations prefer to use temps/contractors on work visas from another country but I am supposed to stand by my flag.

To rail against free enterprise is as useful as trying to nail jelly to a wall.

In England we have seen our entire industrial base outsourced.

This outsourcing started in earnest way back in the 1950's with the manufacture of cotton goods. From then until now we have seen the demise of many domestic industries including;

Coal mining
Steel production
Electronic goods
Fashion
Ship building

the list just goes on.


Many people fought long and bitter battles, that divided communities and families, to safeguard their jobs but change still came. Parliament huffed and puffed but things still changed.

Multi-national companies were paid obscene amounts of money to build factories in depressed areas of the UK. They came they built, they traded and as low-wage economies opened up in eastern Europe off they went siting "responsibility to sharehoulders" as their reason for closing the UK operation.

The entrance of low-wage economies into a high-wage market place is nothing new. We are used to those low-wage economies providing consummer goods that we, in high-wage markets. can buy, use and enjoy.

What is different now is that, thanks to the miracle of modern communications, low-wage economies are now competing in high-wage markets for the provision of services.

These people have seen the internet as providing them with an opportunity to succeed in life and they are grasping it with both hands. Their market penetration will continue to grow until wages in their economy start to approach the levels we enjoy.

Whatever you decide to do to compete keep in mind that these incomers are people. People with families, hopes, dreams, aspirations and above all determination.

It would be a shame if, in opposing, we were to become so bitter that we lost our humanity, our health, our dignity.

This is but the start of a change which will rock more than our corner of the employment market. The speed at which the incursion will grow will leave us breathless.

Indigo

Whoa . . . I guess the logical thing to do is to start charging $1.00 per hour and maybe 200 free digital prints. Perhaps having a worldwide "free" delivery system would be a great idea too (you may have to purchase "two" ox carts). :)

Also, I'm wondering how their recruiting program is going? . . . .

Anyway, look at it from this perspective, people in Bangladesh obviously have a great sense of humor ;)

Yours is simply another brand of "bleeding heart liberalism." Look around the US and view the strewn remnants of the unemployed and bleed that nonsense somewhere else. Should the US sacrifice their own citizenry for the sake of uplifting the poor of other lands? Is it not enough that people walk over our borders, reap the fruits of this great land, and then go on toward prosperous lives? Why is it that we have to destroy what we have here to help others? For the first time in US history, the most skilled and educated are out of work. Investment bankers, stock brokers, many other financial industry professionals not to mention the waves of technology industry professionals, are all out of work, and for what? So the families of these impoverished lands can propser? The trouble with that picture is that we're not really helping anyone, we're taking from "Peter" to help "Paul." It's the same as when Affirmative Action programs were enacted. We gave jobs to neglected minorities at the expense of the people who were already in those jobs. The same with women in the workforce. As the level of working women increased, so also did the number of men working decrease. This is not just my opinion,read the numbers in any of the resources available. If all of this were fair I'd have no comment, but I see it as a maniuplation by the "Big Boys." Case closed.

I am so sorry to have caused so much offence.

It appears that I have expressed myself so poorly that I have only succeeded in causing injury and upset.

Please accept my apologies.

My only point is that the poor and desperate will always work for low wages. They are not unskilled, just poor.

The internet now allows, encourages them, to work for low wages in all and every market in the world. They
no longer have to be poor.


These people who have come to your attention are but the vanguard. They are going to tell all their relatives
how easy it is to make a good living subbing over the net. They are all going to tell all their relatives and off we go.

Deluge.

The true irony is that the muti-nationals and the "smart-guys" in the city made these people "web-aware" by
hiring them at garbage rates to cut company overheads. What these people have found is that the door swings
both ways. Now it is these same multi-nationals and "smart-guys" who are screaming for someone to bolt the
very same door that they created.

Indigo

Hey, their offer sounds really good! I know the people in south Asia work very hard at very low wages and not greedy like us.

I think we can watch movies or sleep the whole day by letting those people sweating on our jobs at negligible cost!

Let me know how can I reach them? :cool:

David

As far as I know there is only one company in the world that is capable of offering such low cost solutions for the image restoration industry which is based in Bangladesh; their quality is also better than most of the US companies.

Most of you are afraid of loosing your jobs/business but all you know that the rude law of the world, "Survival of the fittest". So I think all of the photo restoration (or similar) jobs of USA would be outsourced soon as the 99% garments products are outsourced from Asian countries. The catch will be for ourselves who would be smart enough to pick the easiest way of outsourcing first!

Have a nice time, buddies.

Jon

For the benefit of younger people here - the same cries of foul were being played loud and clear after World War II when I first went into business.

During the fifties and sixties - the complaints were that we were giving the electronic industry to Japan - you could buy a college grad over there for $40 bucks a month. We would never survive it, our foreign policy was going to destroy America etc. etc.

While gloom and doom may be easier to spread than historic fact, it's probably worth noting that only a few today would not agree that Japan is considered a reasonably good trading partner!

Could it be that in looking for reasons that business might be bad we often start in all the wrong places?

Jim Conway

My question is who is working on the images. I hope not children. Also will service rendered be quality?

It's great to have a forum like this for retouchers. Be sure to support the site by purchasing a RetouchPro coffee mug or sweatshirt. I have mine!

This is a contraversial topic and I think "cool heads will prevail." Jim Conway's historical point of view is wear I tend to wade. Moreover, I believe that we can ALL benefit with an open mind.

This is not to say I don't feel "threatened" by outsourcing. However, I am getting in the habit of using such fear to my advantage: Be a better retoucher! From working more efficiently, to training to upgrading equipment and offering better print quality, there are many, many ways self-employed American retouchers can stay competitive.

This world is getting smaller. In a time of great intolerance for political ideals and cultures, we need to examine why we react to certain things. Sometimes we misinterpret opportunities for solid business alliances as "threats." As Jim Conway wrote "Could it be that in looking for reasons that business might be bad we often start in all the wrong places?"

Eric C. Basir (Bond)
www.abetterreality.net

Aside from the historical point of view another way to avoid feeling "threatened" by events or others is to find out everything you can. Order a job from anyone you feel may hold a key to your future and the same applies to any new technology that you feel can put you out of business - explore it! The threat is either real or (more likely than not) just hype. Either way, you are back in control.

When I was a kid I read a book that had the a theme that has help me countless times in my life - "Go straight to the heart of danger and there you will find safety"

Like a pilot learning to handle any emergency - Just assume you've already crashed and work backwards from there, that kills the fear factor!

Jim Conway

Can anyone let me have his URL I will check it out.

col

Hello Folks,

There are other things to consider, for instance, how long do they work? Do they get a lunch break? How much of the two dollors do the workers actually get?

There were a lot of inhumane conditions revealed in the clothing sweatshops that were shown on "60 Minutes" a few years ago. By providing work for them will make somebody rich, but not the overworked sweatshop employee.

Sometimes they are forced to sleep on the primises that they work, and as mentioned above, how many are childern?

Why contribute?

DW

I agree. However, it would be wise to research such companies first. We don't want to be guilty of generalization. Just because people in another country are doing the work at an exchange rate which is lower than the dollar, doesn't necessarily mean they are working in retched conditions. Call human-rights organizations for possible sources.

As far as I know, only the college gradutates in developing countries can reach to a computer for learning and children of rich people who don't need any job at least. I think people of those countries are thousand times civilized than us and don't pay taxes to kill children with F-16s!

Cheers!!!

Jon :o:

I would like to just add a short comment to one person's ideas. You state that these people from Bangladesh are taking over business that should be done by Americans. I don't think that you realise the extent of the American takeovers in other countries. Please go easy on the attitude. We at present have quite a few hostile takeovers by American companies. I think that the person who made this comment needs to look at both sides of the coin.

Apart from that I agree with the work not being done by young children and that the workers should receive decent wages.

There's a word that encompasses the idea of business seeking out the cheapest possible labor.

It's 'capitalism'.

Don't get me wrong regarding slave and child labor... I stopped buying Nike products for a long time when the news came out about the shoes being made in sweatshops in the far east. And I am strongly against U.S. companies going overseas to avoid paying wages at a livable U.S. level. And I really hate companies that avoid paying U.S. taxes by registering their ownership in foreign countries.

I'm just saying that many capitalist enterprises will generally continue to do what's best for their profits, and not necessarily their employees, society, etc. Look at the profitable auto plants in the U.S. that were closed and moved to Mexico, just because they could be a bit more profitable down there. They weren't losing any money at all, but they couldn't resist the temptation of cheaper labor.

The only way to stop it are laws and regulations. But businesses hate regulations and many start with the "regulation is un-American" arguments anytime more regulations are mentioned.

Businesses are only as moral as their owners. And as we've seen over the last two years with the turmoil in the stock market, it seems that morality in business is in short supply these days.