Actually, programmers can be paid proportionally to their productivity... they just need to run their own businesses (which has the downside of requiring the programmer to learn to be an entrepreneur... but it can be very financially rewarding). http://swombat.com/2011/4/26/productive-programmers
I find my skill as a programmer has substantially diminished the more I've had to spend energy and focus being an entrepreneur. I believe there's a myth that the hacker can do it all and do it all well. In reality I think you end up being stretched like... butter scraped over too much bread. :)
It may be a cop-out but now I'm looking for "top people" to hire, but what I usually mean is someone who can have the programming focus I don't have anymore. I'm looking for "me 6 years ago" the hacker who loves products and wants to build a business who's at the beginning of the entrepreneur track. Damn damn hard to find.
Second the idea that my programming output has declined in terms of quality as I focus more on business related aspects. It forces you to look at everything in context -- better code quality gets you more maintainability, but at what cost? Every decision I now make has a trade-off; as a programmer, I can afford to throw more time to elegantly solve a problem. As an entrepreneur, I just need it to work as well as I've defined, for a specific cost.
If you run a tech business, your tech productivity will absolutely come in, though - and that's true both for services (e.g. freelancing) and products. You will need to learn other skills, for sure, but those are the skills you need to demand payment commensurate with your productivity.
