American Jobs, American Problems

I'm not ready to say that India was an idyllic place before American and European call centers and offshore technology offices began sprouting up over the past decade. But there are a couple of recent news stories out of the subcontinent that make you wonder.
Recent polls of Indian call center workers found more office hanky-panky and drug use than Indians are accustomed to.
Shankar Rao, deputy commissioner of the New Delhi Police, suggested that the call centers provide counseling to keep staffers off drugs and sex and that they should make sure no one works more than three nights a week.India's drug problem appears to be growing, and while the call centers probably aren't directly responsible, the nation's growing economy and infusion of disposable income seem partly to blame.
Says Kiran Bedi, who heads the Navjyoti Rehabilitation Centre in Delhi, "One of the biggest reasons for drug addiction is peer pressure. Being in the company of people who have loose money instigates one to adopt a similar lifestyle. Drug peddling and drug abuse are inter-related. To be able to sustain drug abuse, drug peddling becomes necessary because that is how the money to buy the costly drugs comes."This is the same phenomenon documented by American rapper Biggie Smalls in his hit "Mo' Money Mo' Problems."