Ask YC: Ethics of outsourcing

[optimal]

Could someone please look at the very detailed and extensive list of requirements and deliverables in this ad for a contract job, then look at the stated budget and share your opinion? Is it just me or is this particularly egregious?

http://www.getacoder.com/projects/artificial_stock_market_70499.html

Maybe it's not unusual, and maybe the bidders are happy for the opportunity, but would you--as coders who know what a project like this entails--take advantage of others in this way? Especially considering this is in the financial domain and there is almost certainly some sort of monetary aspiration at the heart of the project.

[run4yourlives]

You wouldn't even get the write up from me for $300, but I live in Vancouver, Canada.

People living in Bangladesh could probably stretch that $300 a lot further, (maybe even a month?) so any understanding of ethics should be based on exactly how much that $300 is worth to the individual on the other end. If the man needs to work 9 days and earns barely enough for lunches for the period, then it's unethical.

If he can pay rent on 9 days work @ $300, I'm not sure how it can be seen as being so.

[utnick]

it isn't taking advantage of them. they are volunteering for the job.

That being said, I am pretty sure that a big % of rentacoder bidders fail to deliver to the expectations of the client. It seems like some groups just throw up bids to everything and see what sticks.