Comment by smugma
4 years ago
Americans work 15-20% more hours, at least compared to Europeans (<2 weeks vacation compared to 4-6, etc.), and have to pay huge amounts for healthcare.
In almost all fields, Americans make more money.
The tech 2X is that historically hiring was done for the Bay Area, where cost of living is crazy, and also just basic supply and demand. If a few dozen engineers can build $100M-1B+ of value, it makes sense to pay them a lot (of investors’ money).
I know, I know. But look at the difference in price worldwide of developers (it's so much more than 10-20%). Think of the 10s of thousands of engineers paid insane starting comp to do feature-work at the tech giants. I don't know, but I think this may well become a thing of the past in the next decade.
If a cheaper human replaced me in my job ...it means humans still do the job and not some A.I so glass half full?
If i took a random sampling of a few dozen engineers in silicon valley they could build $0 of value most likely.