There are several things that go into a product. Using your metric, if you chip away any one of them the other parts tend to become worthless. You wouldn't ha

There are several things that go into a product. Using your metric, if you chip away any one of them the other parts tend to become worthless. You wouldn't have a product without the ideas that go into it. You wouldn't have a product worth anything if you didn't have people selling & marketing it. In a vacuum each aspect is worthless. So programmers should be paid zero, just like inventors should be paid zero. Because unless you're going to build a business, what you just programmed is worthless.