[b_t_s]

Yea this is a location thing. Im no rockstar ninja wizard, nor have I ever lived in a 1st tier tech hub like SV. I'm a competent professional with 2 decades of experience, but not particularly remarkable in any way. Here in the US there is a good market for competent professional software developers, and not just in the SV bubble. Any competent professional with 5 or 10 years experience can get 100k USD or more a year job with a 40 hour work week at a stable(non-startup) company in almost any medium or large city in the US. It may not be their very first job offer, but with a little work they can definitely find one. Thats one reason why maybe 10 to 15% of my US based coworkers are Europeans who have come here in large part for the better job opportunities.