I talked to a business leader yesterday who said that their outsourced overseas developers were not performing well, so they were planning to directly contract some overseas developers, because then they would be “captive”. And he proceed to refer to them as “captive developers” for the rest of the conversation.

Sir, you should not refer to people who work for you as “captive”. That has a very negative connotation, and I’m shocked you don’t hear it. Please at least notice everyone else’s reaction when you say it.