[xcv123]

A $2000 USD laptop would depreciate to nothing over five years so that is an expense of only $400 USD per year.

At a moderate $80k USD developer salary, the laptop costs only 0.5% of that. And this is the main tool you depend on to earn an income. For an underpaid junior developer earning $40k it's still only 1% of their income.

10% of an average developer salary is something like $8k per year. What laptop costs $8k per year? That's $40k after five years. Are you confusing a laptop with a new Mercedes or what?

Laptops are a business expense for a developer. This is how you need to think about it.

[Darmody]

But the US is not the only first world country.

I live in one and my salary is a little less than 30k and I'm not a junior. My junior colleagues are at around 20k, so for them it's actually 10%.

[xcv123]

I never expected a first world country to pay that little. I live in New Zealand. Your colleagues are earning less than our minimum wage.

So apparently first world is not the same as "high income". In that case I would buy something from Taiwan.

[Darmody]

Well, this is the salary in many European countries. Spain is the 15th economy in the world and these are the salaries.