‘The viral idea is this: you set up a business offering a service, but outsource all the work to somewhere you can find cheap labour.’‘The viral idea is this: you set up a business offering a service, but outsource all the work to somewhere you can find cheap labour.’Wannabe business moguls suggest we should all outsource our work to countries where cheap labour is easily available.
id you miss out on getting rich quick via bitcoin? Don’t worry: TikTok’s legions of personal finance influencers have you covered with a cunning new moneymaking scheme called. The viral idea is this: you set up a business doing a service such as video editing or graphic design, but outsource all the work to India or somewhere else you can find cheap labour. Then you rake in massive profits off the back of exploited workers.
Now, before you dust off your pitchfork, I should note that it’s not clear whether every Yim evangelist is entirely serious. It seems that the concept was coined by an influencer as a joke – a satirical take on the way some American startup bros openly boast about how they maximise their profits by paying overseas workers as little as possible. And, obviously, it’s hardly just startup bros making a buck by exploiting cheap labour. That’s sort of the basis of capitalism.
Satire and reality are increasingly indistinguishable, however. While Yim may have been coined as a joke, large numbers of social media influencers are trying to capitalise on the idea by selling guides to making money via the method. The technology news site 404 Media recently bought one of these guides and found it riddled with dehumanising language and iffy ethics.