Its not that simple. To make it as a one percenter here in South Africa you have to take home a little over $40k a year. The CEO's of most of the smaller tech

Its not that simple. To make it as a one percenter here in South Africa you have to take home a little over $40k a year. The CEO's of most of the smaller tech firms probably take home less than the starting salary of a US FAANG developer. There is a limit to how much those salaries can increase before the company goes out of business. The company I work for has lost a good few staff to EU companies recently. I presume their staff have been moving to US ones. I fully agree its the Free Market and I'm not sure I would change it if I could but that doesn't mean it isn't painful for everyone.