I sympathize very strongly with this position, but I think there is another way to look at it that's at least worth considering. Think of it as advocating for

I sympathize very strongly with this position, but I think there is another way to look at it that's at least worth considering. Think of it as advocating for all work to be paid more. Those people doing "real work for a living" should be being paid enough to live comfortably. Workers don't actually owe financial sacrifice to the machine because they feel bad about other workers that get paid less. The politics of your loyalty is somewhat misplaced: out of loyalty to other workers, you want the corporate structure to benefit? Money paid as salary to employees goes towards useful things like housing and childhood education and food. All across the board. Or, to put it more delicately: suck as much money from the greedy bastards as you can. They're trying to do the same to you anyway. I suppose that's exactly the 'us vs them' mentality you're worried about, but for the most part programmers aren't real money. Yeah, you might find it easy to buy a house or two, but real money has a million as the lowest denomination bill.