You're not thinking of programmers from developing countries. It can be several days wage there.
> $99/year is peanuts, that's less than 1 hour of developer time
lol, I wish.
Well ... it might not be what a developer is paid, but it's the value a developer creates for a business (experience and training withstanding of course), if you catch my drift.
There's a difference between your salary, what you cost to the company, and how much they charge the customer for your time.
99 cents a year would stop spammers creating a ton of accounts too