But that doesn't stop them from hiring a bunch of capable software engineers from e.g. the Western Balkans to build stuff for them for crazy money (6 figures EUR is crazy money for the Western Balkans). Like the guy who created a phone network for the Colombian cartels in the 1990s.
6 figures EUR is bordering on crazy money for Eastern Balkans, which are in the EU, let alone Western Balkans.
For reference, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the median salary for a software engineer is 3650 BAM (1867 EUR at today's rate), per month, making a yearly 43800 BAM / 22404 EUR, and that's gross, before taxes and stuff. 6 figures EUR, even assuming low 6 figures like 300k, is the equivalent of more than 13 yearly salaries, and is of course untaxed, so even more with that. One can comfortably retire with 300k EUR in Bosnia.
