One thing that doesn't get talked about enough is the impact of programmers writing software for free[1] on what programmers as a whole are paid. It could be a

One thing that doesn't get talked about enough is the impact of programmers writing software for free[1] on what programmers as a whole are paid. It could be argued that such free labor reduces the value of programming as a whole, because many if not most people would gladly use "free" software than pay for it, so if those "free" options didn't exist then the non-free software which did exist would be both more attractive and more valuable... and so programmers as a whole would be paid more. But it's not so simple, because virtually the entire internet, all the tech giants, and arguably most companies today rely on "free" software, and their success is partially if not largely due to such software.. and, it's because of their success that these companies can afford to pay the relatively large salaries that programmers earn. So the relationship between programmers working for free and programmer salaries is a complex one, but it's still intriguing to wonder what programmer salaries would be like today had the free/open source movements not flourished. The other thing to remember is that programming used to be a pretty esoteric discipline, which was dominated by Americans... who could demand relatively high salaries because they didn't have to compete with the rest of the world. Now there are exponentially more programmers and people from all over the world can program. Not to mention that math education in America is pretty awful compared to much of the rest of the world, and good math skills help people to be good programmers, resulting in even tougher competition from outside the US. If language, culture, and time zones weren't an issue the competition would be even tougher. [1] - the term "open source" is often used as shorthand for this, but it's obviously imperfect as there are many programmers who are paid to write open source software, such as those employed by Red Hat, Mozilla, Google, IBM, etc..