The Ted Talk below gets to the heart of what I think will be the demise of runaway production. There are three things that experienced artists bring to the table that inexperienced, cheap labor will not bring. Innovation, creativity and the experience to solve new problems. The tasks that have a clear goal can be assigned to cheap labor. But, how many of us everyday are posed with new problems in CG and VFX that require creativity and thinking "outside the box" to solve a problem. There are no clear set of rules to the complex obstacles you run into when working in VFX. There is rarely a single solution. Every single shot poses a new problem.
I watch my colleagues run to London, Vancouver, Australia, etc. because they want to make movies so badly they will take half their pay to do so. Why? Because they love what they do. The Motivation this guy talks about actually exists in experienced CG artists. Corporate greed will destroy innovation and creativity in our industry. The studio that adopts the philosophy Dan Pink describes in this video would be much more profitable than any other studio. Artists working in CG love their job so much, they would work all night to get their shots looking great because they care about the quality of their work.
Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.
These are what will open the doors for new studios wishing to be pivotal in VFX.
Carrots and sticks for cheap labor will not make studio more profitable.
And, it certainly will kill innovation and creativity.