The author is a CS professor. Does he not enjoy CS or something? I'm not certain what his goal is with this article.
"Finally, those high programmer salaries are actually low, because the same talents (analytical and problem-solving ability, attention to detail) command much more money in other fields, such as law and finance."
This is a tricky one, because it really boils down to "it depends." I can't speak about the law sector, but my limited experience in the financial world speaks to sales guys making oodles more than the analysts or quants. Further, the high salaries come with many more hours, so the per-hour salary of a software engineer would actually be higher.
"Finally, those high programmer salaries are actually low, because the same talents (analytical and problem-solving ability, attention to detail) command much more money in other fields, such as law and finance."
This is a tricky one, because it really boils down to "it depends." I can't speak about the law sector, but my limited experience in the financial world speaks to sales guys making oodles more than the analysts or quants. Further, the high salaries come with many more hours, so the per-hour salary of a software engineer would actually be higher.
http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Financial-Analyst-l-New-York,...
http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=software+engineer&l1=sun...
http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=quant&l1=new+york+city (note that a quant is typically a phd-only position and comes with crazy hours)
http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=fixed+income+sales&l1=ne...
According to this data I was mistaken about sales vs quants, but I wonder if this factors in bonuses (which would be significant for the latter two)?