Self-branding entrepreneurship in Ferriss’s creed rests on exploiting global labor differentials

Evidence

The 4-Hour Work Week is also a response to social anxiety over outsourcing and the loss of American competitiveness in the global economy. Rather than worrying whether one’s job will be outsourced to Bangalore, Ferriss teaches readers to use virtual personal assistants (VPAs), workers in India who do errands and research for four to twenty dollars an hour, to deal with research tasks, customer service, and even relationships—Ferriss retells a writer’s account of using a VPA to apologize to his wife. The affordability of these services is only possible due to the exchange rate and labor differentials between the United States and developing countries like India. Similarly, Ferriss encourages his readers to travel for extended periods of time to countries where the cost of living is significantly lower, like Argentina and Thailand. He writes, “If you can free your time and location, your money is automatically worth 3–10 times as much.” — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 451

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to labor arbitrage and the gig economy literature — geographic wage differentials as the hidden infrastructure beneath ‘lifestyle design’ rhetoric. — connects to: Neoliberal entrepreneurship rhetoric masks a reality of collective corporate effort — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 306
• ADDENDUM: Could support the sacrifice article framing — the ‘new rich’ narrative quietly externalizes the cost of freedom onto low-wage developing-country workers.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal entrepreneurship rhetoric masks a reality of collective corporate effort #complicates (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 306