If the demand for programmers keeps growing, no one needs to starve. For most of its life, computer adoption has been growing exponentially - each time they go

If the demand for programmers keeps growing, no one needs to starve. For most of its life, computer adoption has been growing exponentially - each time they got cheaper, more businesses could afford them. This meant a constantly growing demand for programmers, and therefore higher wages. Eventually, every business that wants a computer will have one, and then demand will stabilize to grow at the rate of population growth - bye-bye supernormal profits for programmers. I saw a fascinating presentation that claimed that this happened at around the year 2000. Of course, now computer adoption is greater than 1 per capita, with it being common to have at least two of a desktop, a laptop, an iPhone and a gaming console - and greater demand for software. Also, some consolidation of software would have seemed likely (and that happened within the categories of e.g. word-processors and OSes) - yet, the number of categories themselves seems to have grown, with a webapp for every occasion, and even add-ons to websites like facebook etc. So maybe the exponential growth in demand will continue. I like to think that software embodies knowledge, and like knowledge, is therefore be limitless - it's just that that hasn't been the driver of industry so far