[Dangeranger]

Saying that skilled services are a "commodity" implies that the work produced by two people across the globe would be interchangeable or "fungible". This is not true in most cases. There exists a considerable difference in the service quality when working with a team located closer to your place of business. This is mostly due to the differences in communication and cultural understanding when talking about the business goals, requirements, and changes after the fact. Repeating the mistakes of outsourcing made during the 80s and 90s will lead to similar outcomes.

[otakucode]

There are also many legal concerns. When you outsource a job to, say, India, you are also paying to have that work either stolen from or should expect it to be stolen and given to, your competitors. There is no protection of intellectual property there. Even if the authorities in India became amenable to foreign entities penalizing Indian businesses for playing fast and loose with intellectual property, it would be astronomically expensive to hire a skilled international lawyer to deal with the case.

[rms_returns]

Yeah, what you say applies to firms who care about their intellectual properties (like software companies or music companies) but most clients who hire freelancers don't fall in that category. Its mostly custom development work for their website or app and the clients are typically startups and small businesses who perhaps don't even care about these things.