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The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

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Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#42
post #28

As someone who lives in the UK it's pretty depressing that we somehow seem to have succeeded in mismanaging ourselves into being a low-wage economy. The 20% or so depreciation in the pound as a result of brexit, and the subsequent futher devaluation as a result of the chaos of Boris -> Liz Truss -> Rishi Sunak definitely played a part in making the UK relatively attractive for firms from the US say, but there are als…

What’s Brexit got to do with anything? If you look at a graph of the devaluation of the pound, it’s a pretty linear decline from 2014 onward. That was two years before the referendum. The UK actually seems to be stuck in more or less the same malaise that’s hit Italy and France, which is failure to recover from the 2008 crash. If you look at a graph of GDP per capita, all three countries have been totally stagnant on…

There was a sharp change to the exchange rates the moment the markets reopened after the result was announced: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=pound+dollar+exchange+r...

If you compare this to the two surrounding 6 year periods, each in isolation seems unremarkable:

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=pound+dollar+exchange+r...

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=pound+dollar+exchange+r...

I agree that the deeper issue is the failure to recover from 2008; I've also seen the similarities with Japan: one lost decade turning into two lost decades…

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#43
post #32
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's deliberate, if you read their document* from a few years ago "Britain Unchained" that was basically the plan. *I say document, it's written like it's by 6th formers who have just discovered Ayn Rand, but it is pretty short.

In my head, a satire of a Brexit politician: "All those foreigners, coming here, taking our jobs; don't they know that's it's supposed to be us, going abroad, stealing their jobs?"

Yes and they come over here, steal our jobs and are simultaneously lazy and sponging off our welfare. They are Schrödinger’s immigrants

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#44
post #3

The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job staff shortages in the U.S. You mean the white-collar jobs Americans can't find anyone to do?

That's a load of horse manure and you know it. They can easily find people. The problem is they don't want to pay.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Even the average dev salary is only say, double that average. Dev salary being double the average national salary is very good by western EU salaries. In Austria for example as a dev you earn just slightly above the national average income. I think only in the US and cheap countries like Poland, Romania, SE-Asia, etc it's normal for devs to earn several times the average national income because they're hot markets f…

Devs in my "cheap country like Poland" earn significantly above the national average income of Austria.

Well said.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#46

Kinda related, but why the heck are all third-party recruiters British? Every single third-party recruiting agency seems to be British

Yes, I can agree and I think that the corona lockdowns at least here in Europe accelerated this impression. Before 2021 it was very rare, that I would talk to a recruiter from UK, mainly those from Facebook, after 2021 it was the new normal.

During the mid phase of corona, let’s call it the Work from Home aka ZOOM phase, big tech hired massive amounts of developers all over the world and English was and is the lingua franca in everything Computer Science related.

I guess that the internationalization and corona together with English being the common denominator played a huge part here as well as cultural considerations. People from UK are tight to the main markets like USA, Canada, EU and India.

Just my 5 cents.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#47
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is pretty much the definition of staff shortage, yes.

I think that's their point, that if the jobs being taken by Brits are ones without anyone in the US able/willing to fill the position then the headline of "stealing jobs" is a bad one.

This isn't an issue of someone not being able. It's an issue of anyone WILLING to do it for shit pay.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#48

Kinda related, but why the heck are all third-party recruiters British? Every single third-party recruiting agency seems to be British

Also from Ireland. I think English language being their main strength, versus in non-English speaking EU countries where recruiters tend to only look locally where their native language gets spoken instead of venturing into foreign countries where they don't know the language and culture very well. The other I think is how hungry and agresive the UK is for service sector opportunities, having always positioned it's e…

It’s because inequality is brutal in the island, while the mainland is a bit more equalitarian. So was the UK up until Thatcher really. She released the Kraken of capitalism, and now the UK feels like a small version of the US, inequality wise. Thatcher’s reforms increased GDP and wealth but also massively grew the number of working poor.

Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#49

Would you mind also looking a bit further please, like on the main European continent? Our wages here are even lower than in London/UK and we also speak good English. You can hire a developer here for what you'd pay a barista at your San-Fran HQ. Thanks!

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Re: The British Are Coming for Your White-Collar Job

#50
post #20

As someone who lives in the UK it's pretty depressing that we somehow seem to have succeeded in mismanaging ourselves into being a low-wage economy. The 20% or so depreciation in the pound as a result of brexit, and the subsequent futher devaluation as a result of the chaos of Boris -> Liz Truss -> Rishi Sunak definitely played a part in making the UK relatively attractive for firms from the US say, but there are als…

Wasn’t that all set in motion by Thatcher? Especially the deteriorating economic situation for the entirety of the UK outside of London?

Thatcher set out some reforms and flogged off a lot of state run things.

One of the big things she did was de-regulate some of the financial markets (a-la big bang)

The shutting down of the mines was the thing that she was most vilified for. However she left office in 1990, there were 7 more years of conservative rule after her.

However, much as its fun to piss on her grave (no judgement) the stuff she did was/is pretty tame and almost left wing compared to the present government.

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