For me personally, there was a stretch from 2004 to 2008 when it was really easy to get remote work. This allowed me to travel and work at the same time, which

For me personally, there was a stretch from 2004 to 2008 when it was really easy to get remote work. This allowed me to travel and work at the same time, which I loved. Businesses were desperate for people with good web development skills, at that time. Then the recession hit, and everything changed, at least for me. The remote work vanished. I can still find good paying work in New York City, but its all the kind of work where you have to go into the office everyday. My guess is that the kind of work that can be done remotely has moved to countries that have very low wages. The kind of work that remains is the kind of work that can not be done remotely (or so the client feels, due to considerations of security or firewalls or the need for cross-functional team integration, or for the need of internal training of other workers who are suppose to learn skills from you).