_most_ developers live where their companies are and _most_ software companies are in big cities and _most_ big cities in 1st world countries are somewhere on t

_most_ developers live where their companies are and _most_ software companies are in big cities and _most_ big cities in 1st world countries are somewhere on the continuum of expensive to freaking expensive unless you want to live in the slums, and most developers get paid well enough to not live in the slums. put that all together and you have a high cost of living for _most_ developers. "trivial amounts of money" don't go very far in the city. Yes, you can move to the country but speaking as someone who works remotely, it is NOT easy to get a good remote job with a company that gets remote and there is a ton of competition for each position. So, it's not easy for most of us to just move somewhere cheap and "do a lot with apparently trivial amounts of money" Sure, it's possible. It's just not probable, or likely.