Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if engineers in America are ridiculously overpaid, or why do you only compare to Japan and EU? American engineers get paid more than anyone else (except for EU outliers). I make slightly above 100k in Australia, it's a bit tight with the housing situation and cost of living but it's liveable. Cost of living in the US is lower except for maybe healthcare but engineers get companies pay for them anyway. I don't have…
> but I think software engineers are overpaid. I'm curious why you would think this. In some ways software is a trade, but what makes it unique to nearly any other profession is its multiplicative effect. One software engineer can write a program that improves the productivity of thousands or more people. What would you pay the person who invented the lever? Now, what you would the pay the person who invents the leve…
There are indeed developers working on useful things to society, but they usually work on top of amazing intercom and hardware infrastructures that drive more innovation and deserve more credit than their crappy software.
Speaking as a web developer.