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I often do work on an hourly basis. Suppose I charge $500/hour and write a function in one hour that a less skilled programmer charging half my rate does in four hours. Guess who gets paid the most.

John.

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Presumably you, because if you are that good, you will be in no short supply for work. Thus, while the less skilled programmer is still hacking away at the function, you are writing new functionality and earning twice as much while doing so.

Also, the less skilled programmer is going to have a hard time winning projects when his proposals are double the budget and four times the schedule length of yours.

I think you should work slower and/or charge by the job rather than the clock. Capitalism is not about charging what things are worth (to you), it's about charging what the market will bear.

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