This is really difficult to quantify, I imagine. Sure, engineers can create very valuable things. They can also create totally useless things (I am one, and I'v

This is really difficult to quantify, I imagine. Sure, engineers can create very valuable things. They can also create totally useless things (I am one, and I've made my own share of 'useless' features). I don't really see why singling out engineers is really terribly helpful in saying how much they're worth. An engineer can create great value, but if no one is selling it, is it worth much? A company without a direction can have great engineers but crater without good leaders. Without accountants, the money would be in shambles. Without IT, nothing would get done in a larger company. Without designers, user experience would likely suck so bad as to get in the way of the product. It's hard to say that engineers necessarily deserve a larger slice of the pie. As it stands, we/they're paid quite handsomely. But I think to try to make it out to be something almost mythical seems unfair to everyone else. Look at Apple, for instance. Without Steve Jobs, it almost certainly wouldn't be what it is today. Steve Wozniak is by all accounts an excellent engineer, but without Jobs' vision and drive, Apple wouldn't ever have taken off. Of the two of them, Jobs was the much more "valuable" by that measure.