A new financial horror for professional English language writers has come about. It seems that in our modern times even written articles are being outsourced to other countries. Publishers on a number of freelance writers’ websites are requesting 500-page written articles on specific subjects.
Nothing new there except the pay for it is only around $1.50 for each article. Sometimes ads will request 20 articles and have a total announced budget of $30 for the project. Who would work for such peanuts, one would ask? The answer–foreign countries that have English as a second language. $1.50 might not seem like much to one in the west, but in Pakistan or Kenya, the profit from two articles could be a decent days’ wages.
In a lot of countries where the British and Americans were once overlords and made the mistake of forcing their mother tongue on the locals, there are some sharpies who use this talent to make a living for themselves. All well and good for them, but what does that do to the freelance business in the countries where the articles are used, i.e. Britain, Canada, the US and South Africa? Who in these places can compete with those piddling wages?
This invasion of our intellectual space has even spread to humor websites and magazines. The foreign writers are literary piranha; they mass attack and ravage everything in sight.
In fact, it is believed by Internet experts that they have even infiltrated already-written English language texts and are altering them with their adulterated wit. Examples have been foun…..Yah, hey, what call gay white guy named Gene who smoke pot? …Oral high Gene!..ha, ha…LOL… yah, right… Why white women always fat?… Yah, they need be big so no get lost in snow!! …. Ha, ha! …Now tell funny story… Bhuddist priest, Hindu sadhu and Muslim Iman go in bar…