I&#x27;m curious what this guy&#x27;s view of free markets is (for&#x2F;against).  A competitive global market should end up with the situation he complains about (developers in low-income countries being paid less).  Buyers (companies) will try to buy as cheaply as they can, and sellers (employees) as expensive as they can.  Developers in &quot;Buenos Tiempos&quot; can&#x27;t charge SF prices, because all the other developers would be happy to work for 10% less than SF prices, resulting in a downward spiral.<p>In a non-free market, such as a command economy, prices could be set by someone(s).  But he doesn&#x27;t like the idea of an arbitrary entity (the company, in his case) setting the number of &quot;goats&quot; (living standard) you get paid.  He wants developers to get to negotiate that.  But they already are, and globally developers and companies have settled on the prices we have.<p>I suspect that some analysis would show that developers want a certain standard of living globally, and beyond that, they are pretty happy.  I&#x27;d love to be paid the living standard of a millionaire, but I&#x27;m also okay to be paid what other developers are getting paid.  Until all of us decide refuse anything less than living like millionaires, we&#x27;ll get paid a middle class salary.