>A developers rate factors in a number of things, including cost of living.
When deciding what your price floor is, yes cost of living figures in. But what development is worth is its market price (perceived value). It doesn't depend on where the person lives.
The main thing you're actually highlighting here is that if we move to more telecommuting, developers will need to get better at understanding how market pricing actually works and that their development time is a market resource like everything else.
>The guy in Iowa knows he can work for less, but still make more, in terms of disposable income.
Sure, and if all programming jobs went telecommuting this guy would have so many more job offers he would have to push his own prices up.
When deciding what your price floor is, yes cost of living figures in. But what development is worth is its market price (perceived value). It doesn't depend on where the person lives.
The main thing you're actually highlighting here is that if we move to more telecommuting, developers will need to get better at understanding how market pricing actually works and that their development time is a market resource like everything else.
>The guy in Iowa knows he can work for less, but still make more, in terms of disposable income.
Sure, and if all programming jobs went telecommuting this guy would have so many more job offers he would have to push his own prices up.