I'm SDE myself so I don't have much data on that. I've heard people in finance get insane salaries. I would assume that folks working in SpaceX are doing better than their European colleagues from ArianeGroup (who may soon do even worse [0]).

[0]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/oops-it-looks-like-the...

How about fast food workers?

Sorry, neither me nor my friends are into fast food business and it is not something I would read about in my free time.

You should read about that, too. And not just about "laughable SDE salaries".

It's not the SDEs who keep you alive in this world.

How patronizing. I was born in a country where SDEs and "people who keep you alive" were paid more or less the same and don't want to go back, thank you very much.

> How patronizing.

Indeed

> were paid more or less the same and don't want to go back, thank you very much.

Let me guess: because now you're paid ridiculous amounts of money and you couldn't care less about other human beings.

Neither US nor EU have caste system. Everyone is welcome to apply for highly paid jobs in tech, finance, aerospace, etc.