> What makes me nervous, though, is that we don't really understand why programmers are paid this well, and especially why this has persisted. Isn't part of th

> What makes me nervous, though, is that we don't really understand why programmers are paid this well, and especially why this has persisted. Isn't part of this just how valuable software work is? Unlike almost every other industry, there is very little marginal costs to growth and a huge demand for new software based products. This means a large chunk of the value created is captured by the developers, since they are the limiting factor. Even with that large chunk of value going towards developers, they still only get a small fraction of the total value created by the software industry. It is simply such a valuable industry with such small marginal costs, that developers are still able to be so valuable in the market.