Haha, good one. Well, I'm not saying there's no difference between programmers in terms of how well they can do their job. All I'm saying is the difference isn't reflected in the paycheck.
If you are a good programmer (ok, a 10x one!), then, eventually, one of these will happen to you:
* Despair. You come to despise the peers, the tools you have to work with, the market that will never acknowledge nor learn how to utilize your skills... and you become a vertical farmer, or an Irish pub owner, or a part-time elementary school PA teacher. (All of those I've witnessed firsthand.)
* Like I mentioned before, you become a manager. Or maybe go back to academia and become a professor. You still program, sort of, but mostly on a whiteboard.
* The technology you dedicated your life efforts to dies. And then you find yourself in an unfamiliar although related field where your past successes and fame aren't acknowledged. You feel too tired to prove yourself once again and succumb to a boring and meaningless desk job. Perhaps you become a better home cook, or a better parent.
* Start your own company. Very few do this. Most of those who do fail, and then loop back to the of the first three. Otherwise, you are promoted into the owners class. I don't know what happens there, it's happening behind closed doors, at least I was never invited.
