Re:If Software Is Eating The World, Why Don't Coders Get Any...
by adamrneary on Wednesday August 24, 2011 @12:51PM
(#2921450)
I'm surprised that so many of the comments/replies to this post accept the premise that programmers are underpaid and don't get respect.
Everyone I know who writes code is making a hell of a lot more than people who aren't. The people I know at Google aren't making $150k. They are making a lot more and would be making a lot less as a management consultant or a politician or whatever else.
In fact, to say that top management consultants clear $500k is true, but top engineers clear a lot more, both of those industries strike me as massively paid industries.
Then there's banking. Engineers at banks make ridiculous amounts of money just like non-engineers working at investment banks.
Sure, there are engineers working for $60k just like there are management consultants working for $60k.
But I know a lot of unemployed management consultants, and I don't know a single unemployed engineer.
So I think people have raised very interesting thoughts about why doctors make more or less, but I couldn't get past the premise of the article. I think engineers are making a ton of money, and they deserve a ton of money. I think they get a ton of respect, and they deserve it.
Maybe that's just what I'm seeing. But particularly when you then say that teachers are paid more than the average American, I start to wonder who this mythical "average American" is, particularly knowing that my sister is a high school teacher and has to buy her own chalk. She would probably disagree with the article based on all the corvettes and teslas sitting in the Google parking lot.
Everyone I know who writes code is making a hell of a lot more than people who aren't. The people I know at Google aren't making $150k. They are making a lot more and would be making a lot less as a management consultant or a politician or whatever else.
In fact, to say that top management consultants clear $500k is true, but top engineers clear a lot more, both of those industries strike me as massively paid industries.
Then there's banking. Engineers at banks make ridiculous amounts of money just like non-engineers working at investment banks.
Sure, there are engineers working for $60k just like there are management consultants working for $60k.
But I know a lot of unemployed management consultants, and I don't know a single unemployed engineer.
So I think people have raised very interesting thoughts about why doctors make more or less, but I couldn't get past the premise of the article. I think engineers are making a ton of money, and they deserve a ton of money. I think they get a ton of respect, and they deserve it.
Maybe that's just what I'm seeing. But particularly when you then say that teachers are paid more than the average American, I start to wonder who this mythical "average American" is, particularly knowing that my sister is a high school teacher and has to buy her own chalk. She would probably disagree with the article based on all the corvettes and teslas sitting in the Google parking lot.
:-)