Why Do American Freelancers Bid SO Less On Freelance Sites?

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As a freelancer from India, working on freelance sites like Elance for a considerably long period of time now, I really can't help but wonder as to why on Earth do American freelancers in particular charge so low rates for the work that they deliver on these sites?

I mean working long hours, researching and then developing content...these are all activities or processes that take up so much time. Then to be paid what I can only refer to as absolute peanuts is something which is simply beyond my ability to fathom.

This is particularly true in light of what is presumably a very high cost of living in the US. As a freelancer from India, where each Dollar gets me about 50 units of local currency (the Indian Rupee), sometimes these projects seem fairly OK for a person in my part of the world, but the same project certainly DOES NOT seem OK for an American to be working on at the same rate, or worse, at a much lower rate!

These are some thoughts which I shared in a recent video I posted to my YouTube channel that you can see below:

My primary point of contention is that when these American freelancers charge so less, freelancers in my part of the world are compelled to charge even low rates!

Further, what is the sense in charging so less when prices around the world are only going one way, which is up?? In fact, I can say with complete assertion that this whole belief that India is very inexpensive on all fronts is very wrong. For instance, the same car makes and models end up costing twice as much in India as they do in the US. Real estate is another sector where prices are much, much higher in India than in the US.

Also, another important factor that a lot of people out there seem to forget completely has to do with lifestyle choices which we individually make in our respective lives. Yes, there are many people in my country who live on $100, $200, or maybe $300 a month, but that is either a choice which they have consciously made for themselves or because of a variety of factors, like lack of education in particular, or the absence of opportunities, they are compelled to live and "manage" in so less...that is something I am neither willing or able to do.

I hope that someday a sense of reality creeps in wherein people realize that it really does not make any sense at all for American freelancers (in particular) as well as other freelancers from the "Western" world to be working at so low rates.

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