>I just noticed a rather low paying job in the jobs section.
>
>Luis Guzman must be a bigger chronic-optimist than most developers if he thinks he can get even a Junior VFP Programmer (on a six-month contract) for 11 USD per hour.
>
>Are things really this bad?

*reads lots of other replies on this thread*

I don't do consulting, I'm a staff programmer, so I don't understand why a bounty of fifty percent or so above salary seems to be the norm. But my answer to the thread topic is: It seriously depends on what part of the country you're referring to. Down here in El Paso, yeah, I believe that offer - the market just can not and will not pay the same prices that would be seen in Dallas or elsewhere.

I spent three years working for roughly that amount maintaining a Fox/DOS system and trying to plan for updating/rewriting it in VFP. Admittedly, I'm an odd duck in terms of cost/lifestyle ratio, but that was my living and I was comfortable at it.

So, insult? No. That price for a job at McDonalds or Office Depot? Yeah, that's an insult to everyone trying to claw out a living for half that doing the same job down here.