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Yes it’s sustainable — I remember reading somewhere that Apple could pay every employee almost a million dollars per year and still make a profit. You can do th

Yes it’s sustainable — I remember reading somewhere that Apple could pay every employee almost a million dollars per year and still make a profit. You can do the math yourself, and you will be further blown away by just how wealthy our country and tech industry is. As to how our companies make so much money? I’m sure it’s very complicated, but just look at the US economy and contrast it to more socialist economies as seen in Europe. The US economy is far from perfect, but for better or for worse, it’s very prosperous.

fossuser 9y ago
In addition to the US having lower taxes and fewer services I think there’s some sort of status thing going on in Europe/the UK with engineer salaries being lower than they’d be otherwise. Engineers there seem to be viewed as the lower rung on the status ladder compared to management/sales/finance and are paid less on that metric alone. I think the US (particularly Silicon Valley) is better about respecting engineer talent.
- doktrin 9y ago
  One of my biggest surprises when moving to Europe was that engineers earn less (and are IMO less respected) than all types of managers, including but not limited to PMs.
  - richardknop 9y ago
    That shouldn't be surprising. You will find this much with little research. Engineers are treated as blue collar workers in majority of world. There are couple of exceptions such as notably Silicon Valley and most big metro areas in US (New York for example), perhaps London in Europe. But these are just anomalies, prevailing consensus around the world is that engineering is blue collar work, just instead of shovel you use keyboard.
    - electrograv 9y ago
      Well, I guess I’m glad we proved that “consensus” wrong. I suppose this goes to show that just because the majority of the world has consensus on something non-scientific, does not make it the best decision or mindset. Thankfully science is mostly immune to political and social biases when done correctly.
    - doktrin 9y ago
      > That shouldn't be surprising. You will find this much with little research. Elementary. Quite, Quite elementary. I yawn in unison with you old chap.

fossuser 9y ago

In addition to the US having lower taxes and fewer services I think there’s some sort of status thing going on in Europe/the UK with engineer salaries being lower than they’d be otherwise. Engineers there seem to be viewed as the lower rung on the status ladder compared to management/sales/finance and are paid less on that metric alone. I think the US (particularly Silicon Valley) is better about respecting engineer talent.

doktrin 9y ago
One of my biggest surprises when moving to Europe was that engineers earn less (and are IMO less respected) than all types of managers, including but not limited to PMs.
- richardknop 9y ago
  That shouldn't be surprising. You will find this much with little research. Engineers are treated as blue collar workers in majority of world. There are couple of exceptions such as notably Silicon Valley and most big metro areas in US (New York for example), perhaps London in Europe. But these are just anomalies, prevailing consensus around the world is that engineering is blue collar work, just instead of shovel you use keyboard.
  - electrograv 9y ago
    Well, I guess I’m glad we proved that “consensus” wrong. I suppose this goes to show that just because the majority of the world has consensus on something non-scientific, does not make it the best decision or mindset. Thankfully science is mostly immune to political and social biases when done correctly.
  - doktrin 9y ago
    > That shouldn't be surprising. You will find this much with little research. Elementary. Quite, Quite elementary. I yawn in unison with you old chap.