since computers didn’t become every-household items until the 1990s, the demand for software engineers was substantially lower in the years before that. For instance, the average annual software engineer salary in 1984 in the US was about $20,000 to $39,000, from entry level to the highest echelon, respectively. Considering inflation, that would calculate to approximately $46,000 to $89,000 in 2016. From these figures, one might say a software developer could live comfortably in the mid-80s, and based on the lower cost-of-living during that time they most likely could.