Are you sure that's what the market would end up doing? Maybe competition for the people with the most desired combination of ambition and skill set is so inten

Are you sure that's what the market would end up doing? Maybe competition for the people with the most desired combination of ambition and skill set is so intense that the price would end up being >$200,000 anyway. Companies that are based in San Francisco and the Bay Area aren't just recruiting randomly from the people who happened to live there. The most skilled people in the world move there because there's so many companies that can fruitfully utilize their efforts. Or at least that's how it looks to me from across the Atlantic ocean. I'm certain I would be more valuable delivering software for a customer base of 40 million rather than the 400,000 I do in my local market, but I wouldn't accept my current salary for that level of responsibility. Hopefully most others think the same; it's in our interest as developers and professionals/working-class (not capitalist class) to make sure we negotiate the highest salaries we are able to. After all, we are programming magical robots that do the work of millions of menial labor employees. That's an incredibly valuable service we shouldn't trade away cheaply. We've all heard the fable of the 10x engineer. My take is that this is what it looks like in practice.