> Not factoring in the end product? > False premise aside, that's the great thing about software. You don't need an extremely large force of programmers to sat

> Not factoring in the end product? > False premise aside, that's the great thing about software. You don't need an extremely large force of programmers to satisfy most needs. This is because software is a non-rivalrous, non-scarce good. Someone has to write the software. If the only software that's worth writing is the software you yourself need, then the only software that gets written will be designed for people who write software. What about all the people who can't write software? The market meets their needs by allowing them to exchange money for software. This allows programmers to solve their needs (food, shelter, clothing) while doing work includes meeting the needs of others -- this includes hiring people in non-development roles -- such as artists and UX designers -- that are necessary to produce software usable by more than other software developers. If software is freely distributable without restriction, this ancient human economic model fails, and what you're left with are "free software" business models that work for only a very narrow set of problems in which developer and capitalist interests align.