This article and general theme are based on an invalid premise. Many of the most productive programmers are, in fact paid in proportion to their productivity.

This article and general theme are based on an invalid premise. Many of the most productive programmers are, in fact paid in proportion to their productivity. Such people are likely to found startups or join at an early stage or they're likely to work at places like Google that issue large stock grants to many of their most productive programmers. Those who don't are more interested in stability than money. Large non-software companies and governments fail to compensate their most productive programmers proportionally because they have difficulty identifying the benefits they're getting or simply don't value them all that highly. Most of us consider it obvious that such organizations aren't the most desirable work environment for programmers.