Yes, programmers have very good jobs compared to nonprogrammers. Part of that is smart career choice, part of it is interest/skill set. I would allow discussion of privilege to go without comment in that context.
When you say "This is senior engineer privilege speaking" I am much less sympathetic to thinking it is privilege. There are tons and tons of way to improve and command a premium of pay. Almost all of those have nothing to do attributes typically defined as privilege. So it bothers me when you try and attribute to privilege something that is mostly a result of hard work.
I’d agree it is a privilege to be able to hold a job that works you harder and pays you harder, because I feel most people are not satisfied doing jobs that have them frequently idle, and would choose something with a work-level similar to programming
I have to vehemently disagree with this. I have observed that most programmers work something like 3-6 hours a day and the rest of that time is spent browsing reddit/hn or playing ping-pong or some other distraction. Also, every single place I've worked that pays engineers well also has a culture where engineers take 1-2 hour lunches regularly, not to mention full time or part time work-from-home schedules and unlimited bathroom breaks. Of course, at every organization there are those workhorse developers who drink Soylent and coffee instead of breaking for lunch and leave after the whole office is empty, but they are relatively rare.
> Many entry level jobs have workers spending significant time doing nothing.
Do you have any examples? I'd argue that your average waiter works harder than your average programmer. Programming jobs require much more specialized expertise but the work itself is about as easy as it gets; and it's also much more forgiving compared to just about every other profession. Certainly, if you're "spending significant time doing nothing" while working at a restaurant, you will be fired very quickly.
