[Clug-work] C/C++ and Perl developers needed

[Doug Falconer]

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 12:49 PM, Adrianna Pinska
<adrianna.pinska at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 12:25 PM, Antoine van Gelder <antoine at 7degrees.co.za> wrote:
> > The time between your 20th and 30th birthday is the time when you
> > should be laying the foundations for sufficient financial security to
> > be able to buy a house and raise a family one day.
>
> These may or may not be priorities, depending on one's lifestyle
> choices.  Obviously supporting children requires an enormous amount of
> money, but not everyone is going to have them.  And property is
> expensive, but owning a reasonably nice flat in a reasonably nice area
> is not out of reach of two people earning a salary within the
> suggested range -- although it helps to be nearer the end of the range
> than the beginning. ;)

Developing software in C/C++ is difficult. It is a task to be
undertaken by talented, experienced developers. Given that the supply
of talented, experienced workers is likely to be limited, I don't
think those workers should need to settle for "a reasonably nice flat
in a reasonably nice area" on their combined salary.

Also, the majority of couples *do* raise children. Raising children is
a demanding and extremely valuable activity and I think it should be
possible for one of the parents to do so full-time if s/he wishes.

So I think it should be possible somebody doing a difficult, valuable
job like development in C/C++ to earn enough to support herself, her
partner and their children.

Of course we could dispute the whole basis of salary determination in
a capitalist society. But if we accept that workers should be
financially rewarded for doing demanding work, then surely C/C++
developers should live comfortably?

To a large extent, salaries are determined by what workers will
accept. Having worked in London for 5 years, I suggest that developers
in Cape Town often work for far less than they are worth.