>>>Yes, and your point is ??
>>
>>>You brought up supply and demand - I raised other factors related to supply and demand, namely the substitution factor.
>>
>>You're overcomplicating the matter. It is plainly about supply and demand. Nothing more and nothing less. Whether the demand decreases because of other factors does not matter as long as the supply/demand ratio increases, rates will go up.
>>
>>Walter,

>Rates will go up until the people paying the new rates see the capability level of the people left in the VFP World. 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.

I've seen this happen in the clipper world, and two of my former colleages are stuck in the DOS clipper world. They are very experience and not the ones without skills. Therefore I disagree.
How about the cobol programmers ?

Above all, the statement stands like a rock: Whether the demand decreases because of other factors does not matter as long as the supply/demand ratio increases, rates will go up.

Now take the .NET world. Soon everything will be outsourced to India other cheaper countries. Do you really believe there is much future for the plain programmer in the western world. Do you think the plain developper is better of in learning .NET ? I really much doubt it.

Walter,