But not all in the US. 300k tops. 1.3M SWEs in the US. That's 1M SWEs and a few million more other kinds of engineers and knowledge workers who don't have the luxury of being in MS+MAANG.
I did some work for a civil engineer who did ASME boiler and pressure vessel code consulting who made $60k (2000 dollars) for 1-2 hours worth of work. He did between 30 and 50 of them a year.
Top talent turning a side-hustle into a sellable business can easily double one's lifetime income.
I think you're just stuck that your way is "right" and cannot accept contrary data.
I did some work for a civil engineer who did ASME boiler and pressure vessel code consulting who made $60k (2000 dollars) for 1-2 hours worth of work. He did between 30 and 50 of them a year.
Top talent turning a side-hustle into a sellable business can easily double one's lifetime income.
I think you're just stuck that your way is "right" and cannot accept contrary data.