Can Crowdsourcing Make a Dent in Unemployment? Ask MobileWorks.

The question the article should be asking is whether there actually are any tasks for which anonymous, unqualified, remote labourers based in the US have &#62;15x the market value of anonymous, unqualified remote workers based overseas? [It would be interesting to hear any ideas MobileWorks have if they're willing to share them at this stage]<p>The article also skirted the issue of whether the increasing ease of outsourcing work for $5 per man day might actually be a major <i>cause</i> of structural unemployment in the US, even if you take the view that the <i>net</i> benefit outweighs those job losses (I do). Sure, in the longer run companies that have effectively substituted for US-based workers <i>may</i> ultimately reinvest their increased profits into something that creates demand for US labour, and many of the jobs performed by crowdsourcers were never viable full-time employment opportunities in the first place. But if crowdsourcing is to make a dent in unemployment it'll have to start by making up for the jobs it's creatively destroyed...

Let's just remember that all the money saved non rehiring people is not lost, it is probably going to increase investments/savings.<p>And with that, the reality of unemployed people is a bit different. The point, in fact, is finding out why those more savings are not creating new jobs throughout investments.<p>The way I see it, we are in a period where demand is really difficult to predict and understand. Which brings to more bad investments than usual, which then brings less jobs...<p>It is a really complex problem, it can't be solved by a web app. Especially it can't be solved with low paid jobs.

The xconomy.com web site is completely broken if you have NoScript enabled; after about 2 seconds it forwards to the FRONT PAGE of the mobile site.<p>Sigh. Luckily you can hit ESC to stop it from forwarding you, but then if you want to read the second page, be quick on the draw with ESC again or it will send you back to the mobile site again.<p>Incompetent developers.

Co-founder here. MobileWorks is a YCS11 company. I can check in from time-to-time to answer any questions HN'ers might have.

Well, yes, crowdsourcing can make a dent in unemployment, but the dent is in the wrong direction: crowdsourcing clearly increases unemployment.