[southerntofu]

> Good luck finding competent developers and paying them European salaries.

I can assure you some of the brightest people i know are paid a misery in your standards, first of which researchers working for public universities. Free software "consulting" companies like Collabora are also filled with brilliant people.

On the other hand, i don't think i know a single person that gets paid high salary (> 2000-3000€/mo) that does anything useful for society at large or has an interesting skillset. Those are usually managers or Chief Whatever Officers, and i believe the whole society would fare much better without them.

Trying to equate skill/usefulness with salary is a doomed enterprise. You'd be surprised with the knowledge and skills of some janitors cleaning your office, if you ever talk to them.

[Sanguinaire]

I would extend this by saying that most of the people in the US earning mid 6 figures as developers are doing even less good for society than those managers. The market set those salaries high because the negligible marginal cost of reproduction in the software industry is a lure for capital, not because it produces things we actually need.