im with OY, sad to see a business thread get derailed by argumentation.
where Justin is trying to hire someone to work, is an incredibly cheap place to live, safe and away from the big city, $100k goes a LONG ways. It is considered both one of the best places to retire in America and one of the best places to recreate. if you like the outdoors you would love it here. Yahoo, Bing, Blackrock, VMWare, Google, Microsoft, and a few others have data centers here also. Pay is not only related to skill but location, some would be willing to take a massive pay cut to get reliable work in a place like this, where $4k a month rent gets you the nicest house on the hill. $600k gets a 5br/4ba house on the river with a dock and a pool. no violent crime, nice weather, the largest ski resort in Washington is 15 minutes out of town, and very good health care, are nice to have as well.
as for the ongoing arguments... the best programmers i know are not very good at marketing themselves or their ideas. on the flip side they would not be here arguing... they would apply, wait to hear back and move on, or just simply move on if the offer didn't suit them.
