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...but labor is 'free' in India...

His numbers for labor cost, namely $1/hour, are in the ballpark of free. It's probably a bit high (I'd guess something closer to 15-35rs/hour), but not unreasonable.



When the bottom billion in India make around $1-$2 a day, his estimate is off by about an order of magnitude.


India has 1B people and a GDP per capita of about $1400/year, making it a mathematical impossibility that the bottom billion earns $1/day.

The minimum wage in India is 115rs/day, or 11.5rs/hour with a 10 hour workday, so it wouldn't even be legal to pay 5rs/hour (an order of magnitude less than the 50rs/hour algoshift postulated).

Assuming the machine operators earn a median Indian wage, assuming 8 hour days, 6 days/week, 52 weeks/year, their wage will be 28rs/hour.


According to the 2011 Census, India has 1.2 Billion people, so that rules out any mathematical impossibility.

$1 a day may seem extreme but in reality it's not quite as ridiculous as you suggest. In 2005, the World Bank estimated that 42% of India's population lived on $1.25 or less per day. In the interim years, the urban poor saw a 3.6% increase in income inequality and the rural 1.3%.

The issue of minimum wage in India is complicated, not all wage-earners get the either the national or state-level minimum wage (and women are disproportionally excluded). This article covers it in detail:

http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---pro...


India has a little over 1.17 billion people, so if almost all the wealth goes to the top 15%, it's mathematically possible for the bottom billion to make $1 a day.

As you say, though, it still doesn't sound legal.




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