The reality is that a basic rule of economics is that wages and prices tend to be sticky. If current workers are being paid a given wage, it is difficult to bring in new workers at a lower wage. It is also a basic rule of economics that as the supply of available labor increases, wages tend to fall.

There will be more and more candidates available for each opening as outsourcing increases. All indications are that inflation is about to increase, possibly dramatically. When that occurs, it won’t matter that nominal wages are sticky. A freelancer who now gets $25.00/hour will still get $25.00/hour, even if the real value of $25.00/hour falls under $20.00. When the real value of wages is inflated away, an employer may get a small percent fewer applicants. However, he will still have plenty of qualified candidates to choose from. He will not adjust the wage he offers by 25% to compensate for inflation if his top candidate who he could still pay $25.00/hour to is only 2% better than the rest.

While the process of bidding enhances competitiveness among the providers, it also contributes to the risk of creating a community that is ready to be exploited in every possible manner. Generally freelancers are skilled, they have learnt everything a hard way, they are here to find solutions to buyer’s problems, they are striving hard continuously to be useful but there are buyers, who, just because the market provides them opportunistic chances to command the situation, they end up adopting certain unhealthy practices and won’t even look at what the ECONOMY means to all.

For instance, I have observed that some buyers are expecting to hire a person on full time basis on a long-term contract even with the pay fixed at $0.25/hr, that leaves the person with earnings of $2.50 a day or $62.00 for the entire month! Now the question is do these buyers think that there is a group of starving beggars waiting to be appointed to do few things and earn as much as $62.00 for a whole month. This clearly indicates the utter shortcoming of bidding process that encourages exploitation of sorts and undermines human dignity. While offering $62.00 or so for a person for his entire month’s work, the buyers should look at themselves if they too are sort of beggars, I feel they are. My simple question for these guys ‘can you sustain yourself with $62.00/pm?’ In my case it is just my monthly bill for internet connection and mobile bill put together.

I request the providers to totally ignore these jokers who are out there to exploit the people and encourage only those who are willing to pay for the true value the partnership would generate. I strongly believe that Odesk is for creating win-win partnerships and helping each other to succeed.

Deepak

Anyways yes generally the banks don’t lose a penny, though they are losing nowadays with foreclosures paying less than 50% of the loan value frequently.

Either way the REAL loses were in credit default swaps, but that is another story. Not that it wasn’t all their fault.

But on thing I would like to add is that today more than ever the world is thirsty and needs freelance writers to tell the true story of the biggest couple of lies ever told and then sold by the media and packaged by the worlds politicians.

The math and facts are all there.

The lie is that foreclosures are causing the banks to go under and the economy in the US to go under and the world economy to do the same thing.

Lie #1 and the math

In the US when a homeowner gets a loan they pay 2% up front, all taxes for this year and next year up front and then PMI insurance for the loan up front. The bank makes at least 5% of the loan up front given to them by the homeowner with the title for the home and pmi insurance paid for by the homeowner up front. So if the homeowner never pays 1 penny the bank makes 5% AND THE PMI INSURANCE PAYS THE BANK THE REST OF THE LOAN 100%. The bank then gets to write off all other costs and takes a tax break even though they made money! When they sell the home they get that money cash. The bank can decide whether to keep paying the loan they took out for the homeowner at 1% or just pay it off with the pmi insurance settlement and pocket the 5% up front and the sale of the home at the end. So every foreclosure nets the bank a minimum of 5% with another 50% if they sell the home for half price because the insurance policy paid in full up front by the homeowner pays 100% of the loan to the bank if the homeowner never pays one penny, or whenever the homeowner stops paying.

So Foreclosures make the banks money and it is the biggest lie ever told.

Lie #2 and the math
Economic recession in the US is a given according to the media. But the truth is never in the history of the world has one nation been so economically strong as to be able to produce over 1000 suv automobiles per day, breath the air right over the factory, drink the water right next to the factory and do it with less than 1000 workers! So 1 worker produces over 1 auto per day! Nothing economically compares to the manufacturing giants of GM, Ford or Chrysler. IT is a big LIE that they are losing money. The same goes for agriculture, there is nobody in the world or history of the world that can create as much corn or wheat with one person, the numbers are astounding. Yet the media will tell you we are in economic recession.

So freelance writers need to start telling the true stories and dispell all the lies being told to make a few rich people richer.

Our words are powerful. And until such time as we have the skills to write books that sell millions of copies, we need to sell our writing skills to those that are willing to pay for it, so in actual fact the real “problem” freelance writers face today is not the competition of fellow freelance writers, but rather whether they have the ability or skill to market themselves as the preferred writer of choice to their potential client. Many writers are brilliant in what they do,but they cannot articulate their skill in such a way that someone is willing to pay for it.

If writers can learn to “sell” as well as they write, they could actually succeed in a time when many industries are suffering.