Here is my favourite marketing guru, Seth Godin’s take on cheap labor… (bold emphasis mine)
When something is scarce, it's valuable. MBA's with buzzwords and the ability to raise a million dollars around some web idea are not scarce. They are fungible.
People who understand technology and are willing to bend it to their will, on the other hand, are scarce. They can't be found with a classified ad on Craigslist or in a blind project ad on eLance.
The job of the smart business person isn't to fish in waters where coders are cheap. It's to have enough initiative and vision that the best coders in the world will realize that they'll do better with you than without you.
Business people add value when they make things happen, not when they seek to hire cheap.
Cheapness isn’t everything. Job markets are a function of demand and supply. In today’s climate where global economies have been transitioning from mass production to niche markets, specialization (division of labor and comparative advantage) will be playing a much greater role in shaping job markets.
Courtesy of Kauffman Foundation
Thus, people who specialize will command higher pay. To argue that “cheapness” steal away jobs represent squishy thinking.
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