Most of us will not make millionaires by programming, sure, but I would still consider it a lucrative profession:<p>You can enter it without any education other than self thought much easier than most professions, that more formally requires some degree.<p>It can potentially offer a great deal of freedom compared to a lot of other professions. Freedom as in most programmers doesn't really need to have 8-4pm office hours, it's possible to do quite a lot of your work even while on the road.
The pay might not be sufficient for getting rich instantly, but certainly enough to live a good life.<p>However, the fact that you have to spend so much time researching in you spare time to keep up isn't always reflected in the pay.