&gt; Programmers are worth $0 because programming isn&#x27;t a job.<p>Programming absolutely is a job. Its a thing people pay people to do for them.<p>&gt;  It&#x27;s not even a skill;<p>Its absolutely a skill.<p>&gt; rather, it&#x27;s more of an active literacy.<p>Literacy is a skill. It becomes less of a notable skill when its common enough (near universal) in society, fading into the background. But programming absolutely isn&#x27;t that common of a skill.<p>&gt; Asking how much you should pay a programmer is like asking how much you should pay a telephone user, or how much you should pay a pencil user.<p>You <i>might</i> have a case if you were talking about a &quot;computer user&quot; rather than a &quot;programmer&quot;, but as it is, that&#x27;s just silly.