1) I think this is just a symptom of bad management. Again, I'm not arguing that the market situation is optimal for individual companies, just that equilibrium

1) I think this is just a symptom of bad management. Again, I'm not arguing that the market situation is optimal for individual companies, just that equilibrium is reached in the market as a whole, more or less. Sometimes this is accomplished by companies with poor management going out of business because they can't accurately judge the priorities of projects. 2) I think there's a lot of reasons that startups get more done, like just having fewer people. 3) If the best salespeople make 2x as much, it's because they're 2x as valuable. I also doubt that the best salespeople make 2x as much as the best developers, but if so, it's likely because they're twice as valuable. If you want to make that much, go do sales. And if you can't because you lack the skills, perhaps that tells you something about the value of salespeople :)