You're kidding me if you think software engineers are at the bottom of the ladder.

They are highly respected, well compensated, and get paid to work on interesting and challenging problems. In certain labour markets, money and perks are thrown at them.

I live very far from SV, and my job is certainly not as enjoyable as software development, and I can tell you with 100% conviction that there are much, much worse options out there.

I'm struggling to understand your viewpoint. You must have led a very [charmed/sheltered] life if you honestly believe that software engineers are lower than Egyptian slaves on the totem pole. I don't mean that as a personal dig at you, but comments like that rub me the wrong way when I would drag myself through broken glass and barbed wire to have the life of a Silicon Valley software dev.

I struggle really hard to understand this. Relative to many other professions, software engineering (IMHO) is a respected and very well-paid profession, with a fairly positive outlook. I'm somewhat surprised to see so many comments here about software engineers being 'at the bottom of the ladder'.