It’s not that there are no competent people overseas in the countries that typically receive offshored jobs. Of course there are. In fact, many of the best end up here as immigrants in the US.

But the competence level is certainly vastly different. In my experience the average Indian in India is about 1/4 to 1/8 as competent as the average American. At least in tech, though I’ve heard it’s similar in other fields. The average Filipino is maybe half as competent. And the average LATAM hire is maybe 60% as competent as an American.

That’s not great! Part of it is worse education, tons of credential inflation and concomitant lack of experience. Screening is also not nearly as competent or thorough when done overseas. That all leads to offshore teams fucking things up left and right while the few remaining onshore people spend long, long hours fixing it all. All to usually not even save money in the end.

But sure, tell me again how efficient business is.