Because I'm fortunate to have a circle of developer friends where there is no longer any taboo talking about rates and salaries and no one is charging less than $100/hr. Maybe even $130/hr now. My rate is now $200/hr for one-off iOS and Ruby on Rails projects, up from $120/hr when I started working independently in the summer of 2012, and I still have to refer folks to qualified friends.

The taboo of talking about salaries and rates is something that only benefits the people employing you and maybe a handful of employees, but never benefits employees at large. As a manager I remember finding out how much my employees were underpaid vs. another friend's team in a different division and after bringing up the issue with my director or VP a company-wide memo went out telling all managers and directors to stop talking about salaries across divisions. I wonder why.

How geographically widespread is your circle of friends? It was the "anywhere in the world" part I was wondering about, not the fact that your friends can discuss wages.