There are so many reasons for different pay. Sometimes just bad timing with economic conditions. Sometimes a more aggressive employee will push for more and sometimes that backfires. Everybody has different abilities and develops them at a different pace. I have had employees I was thinking should just go away who turn it around and become amazing - and get the raises they finally deserve. People don't get the wages they deserve - who told you life was going to be fair? If they are easy to replace, not too hard to figure out. If they are hard to replace, their wages are calculated to be enough to keep them from leaving.

Green means GO!
But Yellow means GO LIKE HELL!
We have all seen yellow light drivers blow through an intersection in front of us and our green light.

I met a nice young lady - a yellow light driver - right after she ran a barely-red light and t-boned my car.
I had a new green light, and I was too busy talking on the phone to notice her mistake.
Too many people are going to look up from their phones and just GO - this thing is going to kill people.

I agree with the comments about passion.

I have hired more than a few junior programmers, and the really useless ones took instructor-led classes, did the minimum homework and received some kind of certification. They don't like to spend the time to really learn programming, they just want the money.

The really good ones stayed up late nights banging away at code, making something work.

Both of those types write shitty buggy code at first.
The good ones listen and work to improve.

Teaching all kids to code is stupid -- more than half the "advanced" kids struggle with Algebra 1 -- they are just are not wired to think abstractly.
It is ok, the world needs fry cooks, roofers, and CEOs too.

I can't believe how long it took me to notice the training wheels.

>>It's almost impossible to compare because figures for the externalized costs...

Right, we don't really have set costs for the birds and bats that are being slaughtered by the windmills.
For some species, the windmills are the final assault - resulting in extinction.

Who needs more species anyhow?
Pass the Solyent Green please.

Costco sells hearing aids for a lot less. Still way too expensive for what they are.

Donate blood regularly your whole life , and you WILL save a life.

I had the same issue - progressive lenses suck for reading or using a computer. Single vision reading or "computer" glasses work great. My optician (the guy who sells / makes eyeglasses) had the patience to grind a few trial lenses to get the focus distance correct. Focus distance = from my face to the computer screen. The first set, exactly per the ophthalmologist prescription did get everything in focus. Something was not quite right however, I felt a lot of eyestrain when using that set of lenses. Of course I had to pay for each set of trial lenses, but it was worth it. I used drugstore reading glasses when I was younger, and those worked fine at the time. As the years passed, my range of focus distance (accommodation) diminished, and off the shelf glasses just did not work any more. If you can find a set of drugstore "reading glasses" that get everything in focus and don't cause eyestrain, go for it. If you need a custom solution - pay the money to get it right. It is well worth it.

You are volunteering for a lot of misery. If you must persist, read Steve McConnel's "Rapid Development" - He lists all the normal pathologies of software development. Also read Steven Blank's "4 Steps to the Epiphany" - about the normal pathologies of the software business. The problem with reading about the mistakes everybody makes - you won't believe you will make the same mistakes. You will of course painfully repeat each mistake, guaranteed.

More flair! More cowbell!

Clever in it's simplicity, yet fiendish in offloading the headache and punishing someone else. Hopefully, that someone is at least partly responsible.

You are under-estimating the odds of the new company failing, or the job just not working out.
Seriously, your resume should show you moving UP to better positions at bigger companies.
The kind of lateral move you are considering is just not good for your resume or career.

Take some side projects you can do with the latest and greatest technologies on evenings and weekends.
You will polish the skills on your resume, have a little fun, and make a little extra money.

If you do not document your assessment of the code, then all the problems and cost "overruns" are going to be your fault.

You will be able to "blame the other guy" for the first handful of bugs.
After a very short period, all the bugs are your fault.

You have to be nice, but firm in your assessment of the situation.
Your boss(es) will try very hard to make you accept the project and commit to adding features fast and cheap.
If you accept that assignment on their terms, you are doomed.
If they accept your assessment and your terms (rewrite all or part) then you succeed.

Your view of Texas may need some updating. I pay over $6,000 per year in property tax - and something like 80% of that is collected directly by our school district. We have great schools here in Round Rock. It is THE reason we moved here from California.

The physics of this just can't work.
His 30 foot radius = 60 foot diameter sphere the power is broadcast to.
If you can pick up enough power on the surface of that 60 foot diameter sphere to replace a AAA battery, it would be a death ray at close range.