I don't see the total commoditisation for the current future, at least several years. If you analyze current dotnet job listing, the pay for well qualified people is typically very good.

If you scan the online posting for Los Angeles, you see a hugh amount of new project development in dotnet. And companies are paying well. Of course my definition of hugh is relative to the amount of VFP postings.

Some of these qualifications would be experience from dotnet or java experience. Good object creation skills, design patterns, etc. Some are more easily transferable from VFP.

But I 110% agree that domain experience is important. Being able to design business objects with your eyes closed is a great skill. But not being able to understand the difference between a debit and credit is a big problem with the type of work I'm doing now.

>>>By that time, most of the experienced, decent VFP developers will have migrated to other platforms, just like most of the Big VFP names of 5 years ago are gone. Then rates will decrease because the only people left are the newbies with nothing to offer or programmers with deprecated skill sets and no options.
>
>"Meanwhile those who cleverly learned a commodity development tool are watching in dismay as their jobs are systematically outsourced to the 3rd world. Any remaining local jobs have low pay rates because employers threaten to give the work to a Masters Graduate in Mumbai, or to one of the other desperate local developers with bills to pay and nothing else to offer. Competing for the few VFP jobs suddenly becomes more attractive than competing in an oversupplied commodity market."
>
>Your suggestion may well come true. But so may mine unless people stop acting as if learning a new commodity tool solves anything! People need domain expertise to lift themselves out of the commodity. Those who have none are *far* better to focus on that before the crunch comes.