I don't mean wealthy, but at least have some disposable income.

It used to be if you had a desktop at home, you're up to date with technology. Now you're supposed to have an iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, PS3, XBox, and so on, plus your laptop which gets old after a few years.

The problem is, what if you can't buy toys? Say you graduated with a computer science degree, and are unemployed. And someone tells you to keep up to date, and suggests making Android apps as a personal development project. But you can't even afford a cell phone plan, let alone a smartphone. Maybe you still have a laptop but everyone thinks you're an old fart for only having one.

A lot of careers involve technology, but only in CS/IT do you need to own the technology yourself, and have to constantly program in your free time. So if you're the unemployed graduate, what do you do?

Maybe the reason programming/software careers tend to make a good amount of money is because those people don't come from low income backgrounds, and economic background is correlated with career success.