I make that much and I live about 2 hours away from a major market on the east coast. I haven't been offered a developer job anywhere in the past 5 years that was under 75k.
Silicon Valley not required to make $100K. LA, NY, DC, Chicago, Boston and probably more it is very doable to get $100K with several years under your belt.
Look into salaries very carefully. This is not high or unusual or only in Silicon Valley. It's important to know what's typical. salary.com is not terrible for this, also try glassdoor.com.
Does that really affect the argument though? Does paying $5 for an app suddenly become the _wrong_ thing to do if you "only" earn $50k/yr so that $5 represents 10 whole minutes of work instead of 5?
I quite like the "here's the source, compile it yourself for "free" if you want" line... You can have my app for free, so long as you're already paying Apple $100/year... :-)
Agreed. I live in the southeast USA, and that kind of money for a developer is crazy talk. Our cost of living is a lot lower, though. All that aside, $5 for an app that truly is amazing, wouldn't be a stretch for me. heck, I bought Deliveries at full price the other day just to track a package.