It may be useful in times like these to contemplate the impermanence and randomless of the world we live in.
The original job I had was "welder", for which the lower end of the pay range was about $20-$30k, and after some additional decades of experience you could dream of rising to $40-$50k.
I have had some pretty dumb programming jobs, but on the whole it seems pretty fortunate for there to be a job where you can be a college dropout and outearn dentists (or, for that matter, fleet admirals in the US Navy).