If you're a SWE on a half or even a third of an SV salary, you're still in the top 5%. Do you feel rich? No. Are you easily able to buy a house in the southeast early in your career? No. But for every person earning more than you there are twenty earning less than you.
The number of super-rich dominating the conversation, the political donations, and the housebuying is surprisingly small, and most of them make far more from investments than from salary. Actual income for "work" caps out at a few million for celebrities and sportspeople.
Even among the ordinary I know people who've been out-earned by their houses - that is, the annual rise in the value of their (mortgaged) house was more than their salaried income.
If you're a SWE on a half or even a third of an SV salary, you're still in the top 5%. Do you feel rich? No. Are you easily able to buy a house in the southeast early in your career? No. But for every person earning more than you there are twenty earning less than you.
The number of super-rich dominating the conversation, the political donations, and the housebuying is surprisingly small, and most of them make far more from investments than from salary. Actual income for "work" caps out at a few million for celebrities and sportspeople.
Even among the ordinary I know people who've been out-earned by their houses - that is, the annual rise in the value of their (mortgaged) house was more than their salaried income.