[cwp]

Yes and no. They tried that in the 90s and it didn't work out. It turns out timezones, language and culture matter. So yes, remote work will mean that US white collar workers will have to compete with workers in other countries, but that's not impossible. We may find that yes, that drags down compensation in the US, but it also pulls up compensation in the rest of the world, and there's just a wider range, more developers available in general and more coding happens as software continues to eat the world. How AI figure into this is anybody's guess - don't believe anyone who claims to know.

[RestlessMind]

> that drags down compensation in the US, but it also pulls up compensation in the rest of the world, and there's just a wider range, more developers available in general

Agreed. And my point is that is horrible for American middle class, great for American shareholder class and great for software industry in cheaper places. Just like it was for manufacturing.

[cwp]

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think American compensation will go down much, and the to extent that it does, it's because more people can work good jobs that were only available in the top-tier cities before. That is, most people in Michigan won't get SF salaries, but they won't have SF expenses either, and overall they'll be fine. They'll pull the average down, but it won't be horrible for anyone.