> that devs are basically the same as exploited migrant agricultural labor is absurd to the point of offensiveness. I think the claim is more along the lines o

> that devs are basically the same as exploited migrant agricultural labor is absurd to the point of offensiveness. I think the claim is more along the lines of "give it 5-10-20 years and ..." It's not as ridiculous as you make it out to be though. I'd like to point out that if you go anywhere in Eastern Europe (and if you want to be truly scared: rural Eastern Europe) or (I'm told) India, and you will see just that today. Sure there's places to migrate to that will (currently) pay much better (it's scary, a decent Polish programmer can see his gross pay go up 300% and net pay almost 400% by moving to California). I would like to say that partly this is because it's a bit of a lemon market in Eastern Europe. Since good versus bad devs is almost impossible to interview for (for the people doing the interviewing: someone in management who has serious trouble telling Java code from Korean poetry), they are extremely unwilling to pay well and in a team with 90% bad programmers, and there's a strong culture pushing NOT standing out. The only way to do well as a programmer is to be a freelancer.