It's not really much though... Software engineers make that in an hour or two, that's reasonable price for 3 years of updates of the primary tool... And it's a business expense. And as the sibling comment says, a game costs about the same.
It depende on the country. In my country (Brazil, where minimum wage is less than US$ 1/hour) a software developer earns about 1/4 or 1/5 (or less) compared to US salaries for a similar job.
Spotify, Netflix and YouTube Premium here are much cheaper than in US.
I mean contractors - my bad, I should've been more clear... I'm used to everyone being a contractor. Employees should get license from employers. Is contracting rate also that low in Brazil?
To be fair in most of the developed world it is more like 4-6 and there is always Emacs, Vim, Atom, Code for free. An embarrassment of riches for nothing.
Okay then, five or eight hours, or a week.. for 3 years of updates - still peanuts considering that this is programmer's primary tool and business expense deductible from tax base.
