> They instead need to go after the companies that learned to game the system.
I'm not sure if there's a way to prevent global labor arbitrage. Multinational corporations will shift labor to countries with the lowest wages.
Perhaps they should put a multiplying factor on payroll taxes that's proportional to the total non-US labor wages paid (directly or indirectly) for producing a product. All expenses should be default considered as foreign labor-based unless proven otherwise. It would introduce a ton of paperwork initially, but then everyone will be incentivized to produce documentation showing US labor-produced products to prevent the increase in taxes.
There absolutely is: free movement of labor. Unfortunately that's the solution capitalists absolutely will not countenance, and they will happily stoke xenophobia and buy off the most reactionary elements of government in order to keep it from becoming a reality.
Yeah ... these measures don't really address the underlying issue of scumbag executives. They're just going to find another way to pay for cheap labor, e.g., shifting revenue to countries with cheap labor. This move may actually expedite a major shift of software engineering to other countries. In turn, it could help improve other countries' infrastructure creating a positive feedback loop for outsourcing.
Unintended consequences caused by government regulation.
Actual offshoring is a lot more difficult to manage than H1B candidates who sit in your office.
For the former, the big names are well versed in churning out billable hours regardless of actual work performed. The 11-12 hour time difference can sometimes be a boon, but more often than not leads to both your remote and local employees being unhappy. Local employees because they're asked to stay late or come in early, and remote employees because access to transit is more difficult if only US business hours are an option.
I'm not sure if there's a way to prevent global labor arbitrage. Multinational corporations will shift labor to countries with the lowest wages.
Perhaps they should put a multiplying factor on payroll taxes that's proportional to the total non-US labor wages paid (directly or indirectly) for producing a product. All expenses should be default considered as foreign labor-based unless proven otherwise. It would introduce a ton of paperwork initially, but then everyone will be incentivized to produce documentation showing US labor-produced products to prevent the increase in taxes.