Is free language translation our eternal punishment?

Are we relegated to providing (nearly) free language translation?

Free language translation was supposed to be one of those things relegated to free translation engines like Google or Babelfish. Everyone (non-translators included) knows that free translation engines don't give you the results that a professional translator can provide.

So there has always been two choices when deciding to have a translation done. The client could either do a little research and choose a professional translator for those important jobs, and when all that was needed was a gist or overall meaning of a text, plug the document into a free translation program.

Well, it seems like this line between free = bad and professional = quality has been crossed and I have got to say that it scares me a little bit. OK, it scares me a lot. If you're a translator, take heed.

Because the freelance translation market is one that is fought in a worldwide marketplace, competition can be pretty fierce, especially with translators in third world countries able to charge significantly less than translators based out of North America or Europe. No where is this more evident than on freelance job boards.

A Real-Life Example
Let me give you an example of this "free language translation" attitude that I think is becoming all too common. The other day I was checking out some translation jobs posted on Elance.com. I'm always curious to see what people expect to pay translators, as well as how low translators are willing to go to secure a job. Well, what I found even surprised me.

This is the exact posting:

We need approximately 70,000 words to be translated from English into Spanish.
There is nothing technical about the work. The work is in a dialogue format.
We want to hire someone now. We will only use elance escrow service and the work needs to be quality. It will be checked by a third party.
Only bids under 0.01 will be entertained. The ideal bidder could do it for 0.005.

OK, so can anyone actually believe this!!! This guy has 70,000 words he wants translated, he wants them to be quality, and he only wants to pay a half cent per word!!! Honestly, how can someone in good conscious do this? Yet, I don't know what's worse, this person's request or the fact that 6 people have already replied to this guy saying they are willing to do the job! (Specifically, two people from Mexico, two from Uruguay, one from Pakistan, and one from the U.S.)

Worse than free language translation
So is this what people think of us as translators? That we are only slightly better than some free online language translator?

I know that a lot of translators just starting out are especially worried about this phenomenon and are often willing to lower their prices just to "break into the business." I, for one, decided long ago that I would not sacrifice my talents to low-paying jobs that don't give me the respect I feel I deserve. After I do a job, I want to feel like the client has respected me and my work and that I have given it my best effort. I just don't think that would be possible by lowering my price point (especially to half a cent a word!).

I am not a free language translation program.

Back from Free language translation.