nope there's just a shortage of pay from non-Silicon-Valley companies

Software engineers make well above median wages just about anywhere in the US working for just about any industry.

So there’s a shortage until we are all making the same as a Starbucks barista, or whatever is the national median, despite long hours and investment in our education?

What’s with the strawman arguments?

The median software engineer in the US makes an 86th percentile wage.

That sounds awfully entitled.

Yes the companies are the ones entitled. In a free market wages would rise for citizens, instead we have these huge body shops artificially running down wages for any company outside of the FAANG.