value isn't the whole story -- there's a large supply of programmers who are much cheaper than what a stanford grad makes (hacker schools and eastern europe / i

value isn't the whole story -- there's a large supply of programmers who are much cheaper than what a stanford grad makes (hacker schools and eastern europe / india are examples) there are good arguments for why american companies can't outsource effectively for all roles, or the higher quality of a stanford grad, but they aren't simple arguments and they depend as much on low-quality managers as high-quality talent even in a high-price city with a reasonable tech ecosystem like london, programmers aren't paid as much as SF or even NY. comp is complicated