Like many things, this is hugely context-dependent. Abandoning a 9–5 is a substantial financial risk for a $200,000 a year programmer in Silicon Valley or Wall Street, or even a comparatively run-of-the-mill $50,000 a year programmer in some nameless corporation in middle America.

But if you’re on $10,000 a year as a programmer in India or the Dominican Republic, freelancing online becomes almost a no-brainer. The huge gap between their local salaries and living costs, and what developed country clients are willing to pay, lets people living in these countries earn multiple times what they would do locally for very little risk.

I suppose it’s the 21st century version of the 1990s “outsourcing” trend when businesses in the developed world could reduce their costs by shifting their labour to the developing world, benefiting workers in these poorer countries. To be honest, I have no idea what is going to happen to the workers in the developed countries…