At the start of my career, I worked for a company that did web sites. The philosophy was to sell cheap and get cheap labor to do the work. A "digital sweatshop"

At the start of my career, I worked for a company that did web sites. The philosophy was to sell cheap and get cheap labor to do the work. A "digital sweatshop" is a good description. It worked because html is easy to learn and repetition made you fast. Just knowing html is no longer an option but I can see where knowing the basics in programming is enough to create an assembly line type of programming workforce. Prior to the industrial revolution, Craftsmen were the norm. With the advent of automation products are created that best the best craftsmen of old and do it at speeds that no craftsmen can match. There will always be room for the best but we are heading towards a future where low skills will dominate. AI is the big subject now but as most AI expert know AI is very specialized. Generally, it can't match what a five-year-old can do but it's excellent at doing one thing very well. Combine current AI and low skill programmers and you have the workforce of the future. It will be cheap and fast. But we can't get to this future until the workforce is trained. Going forward, the tech giants will be looking for competent techies not necessarily the best of the best but they have to have a competent group to choose from. Infotech workers get paid very well now because demand is high relative to supply. Increase supply and pay is bound to fall. The tech companies know this and are doing all they can to increase supply. If you think companies are doing the world a favor. Don't! Companies are doing their best to survive one more day and create a future where they thrive.