[jacquesm]

Younger people tend to be the ones hired early on in the life cycle of a product or company because they're cheap, easy to push into a mold (or so management likes to think) and can do just as good a job (or maybe even quicker) than older people in making something that visually looks like it might work.

Then, as the project matures you'll find that that gained speed comes at a price, a price that will sooner or later offset the higher wages demanded by the ones that are further along in their life (dependents, more aware of their value).

If there are young really good programmers (it does happen, I've met a couple) then they tend to be exploited even worse, they will end up creating a large amount of value for peanuts.

But that's rare enough that it doesn't change the situation too much.

So I don't see any inconsistency, it's just time shifted.