Can you relocate? I have seen shops like this, but if you can relocate that expands your options by several orders of magnitude.

One example: where I work we have our choice of windows/mac/linux (though if you want to run a linux other than debian, ubuntu or redhat/centos, you're on your own as far as IT is concerned); workstation upgrades are every 3 years. I'm due for a new one in May, so I only have 8GB of ram right now. Every desk has at least two monitors, and every office has a door[1].

This is not in SV, nor is Fog Creek (where Joel wrote the "Joel Test" from).

It costs nearly $200k to employ a software developer after taxes and benefits, so not being willing to shell out a few thousand a year in tools that will give a performance benefit (even if it's just making that person happier in their job), is wasteful.

1: There have been points in the past where cubes were used as a stopgap while we were finding more square-footage, including when I started. The person getting me set-up apologized for putting me in a cube.

Maybe your area really sucks, but i've never had the misfortune to work at jobs even half as bad as the two you've described here. I'm not in a tech hub at all.

I would find a job in another company post haste.

Programming as a job doesn't suck. You were just unlucky enough to find one of the shittiest companies out there, and it sounds like you decided to live in an area without much competition. I can tell you right now, in an area with a halfway decent number of employers competing, you wouldn't have that many problems, and would more easily be able to switch jobs.

I hope your situation improves soon.