It sounds like the right answer the next time VCs complain about startup salaries is to ask how much the partners at their lawyers' firms take home. Total compensation in the millions per year is pretty nuts, even if it does take ten years to get there.

Mind you, I think some of the salaries software developers get paid are nuts too. I don't feel like I'm worth $300k/year, but I hear plenty of stories of people getting more than that...