>> I think this is the most likely scenario. Much of the demand for programmers right now stems more from expectations of future profits than from profits being

>> I think this is the most likely scenario. Much of the demand for programmers right now stems more from expectations of future profits than from profits being currently made. This is certainly true for companies that sell software. Revenue comes from sales of software that already exists and developers are paid to create the next version. Software companies are in effect charging rent for something they have already developed that has zero production cost. SaaS takes this to the next level. Most of these companies are ripe for destruction by Free Software unless they provide something of exceptional value that is hard to replicate. To me the examples are things like Mathematica, or high end CAD or FEA software. PCB design has recently been conquered by KiCAD 6, though there are (apparently) some very high-end tools that have exotic capabilities still. Blender is really taking a shot at animation software, but there is still plenty of room for the high-end. Most software written today is not product software, but internal software to automate things, or otherwise make a business run. Until FLOSS takes over in this space there will always be a need for programmers simply because new companies are always being created that need automation.