I can’t freaking believe it - this just happened to me: It started out with my being offended by this post on the Portland, OR Craigslist "Gigs/Computer" section (emphasis mine):
WANTED: Web Developer
Your Skills:
LAMP (if you don’t know what this means, STOP NOW)
Can read and follow directions.
Now here is the big one. Read the rest of this application and send what is requested.
You need to send:
1 resume (or link to)
2 or more links to sites you have worked on (with a description of what was done)
Finally at least a hundred lines or so of actual code you have written...
The position is part-time to full-time
contract hire to start, at $10-12/hour
I always find these amazing (in a horrible way) - looking for people with multiple skills, proven experience, and then expecting to pay them ... nothing.
Well, I'm compelled to respond this, in a creative way, and then it only got better...
So in my usual tactful and accommodating style, I create my own post - part social commentary, part performance art. Here it is, verbatim:
WANTED: Web Dumbass
(As a public service, we present concise summaries of popular Craigs List posts)
blah blah blah
.
.
.
Linux, Apache, PHP, experience...
.
.
.
Pay rate: $10-$12 per hour
.
.
That was yesterday. Little did I know that the best was yet to come.
This morning I check my email. Predictably, I see the expected "flagged & removed: 367573696 (computer gigs) WANTED: W..." in my inbox. But then, I see second one - and I’ll let it speak for itself:
Subject: WANTED: Web Dumbass
From: "Ram Kumar R" <softyram@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, July 6, 2007 6:08 am
To: gigs-367573696@craigslist.org
I am interested for this work. I have good experience working in PHP/ MySQL and other related technologies. I have team of developers and have done lots of works in PHP, AJAX , Coldfusion, Perl, ASP, Javascript, XML etc.
I can provide my list of references on your request. My hourly rate is 12 USD. I accept paypal payments.
And this is my freelance profile link:
https://www.scriptlance.com/...
So where to go from here with the analysis? Ugh. On the face of it, this is funny as hell - my own personal Web Dumbass! This is better than looking for a Personal Assistant... I'd been setting my sights way too low.
My next thought is the shock, quickly followed by self-annoyance at being shocked that someone from India or Asia will jump at the chance to do computer work for $12 per hour. I feel that this is related to many of the other foreign-labor and employment issues the US faces. I believe that as long as we have open trade with countries that do not have the same standards of environmental and worker protection, then there will always be inequities.
I'm surprised that we don't use our political and economic power to force other countries to protect their workers more. My guess is that this would have great benefits, aside from actually improving the lives of workers in other countries: It would level the economic playing field, making their labor more expensive, and enabling ours to better compete.