Who pays >150? I always hear about this but neither as freelancer or as employee who hires freelancers I have ever seen somebody making that much as freelancer. Sometimes consulting companies charge that much but the freelancers probably get paid only a fraction of that.
Industries where money comes in by the bucket have no problem spending it with a shovel for specialized knowledge they don't have.
If you're a contractor, your best bet is to focus on an industry to understand the needs of that industry better. Rather being a Python developer, you can be a contractor who builds usable solutions that happen to use Python.
Industry knowledge, referrals, good prior work and marketing are important. These $150/hr jobs won't fall into your lap unless you put an effort to position your lap that way :)
I have a buddy who charges $200/h for JavaScript work in Oil & Gas. He works on-site, wears a suit, and makes bank in a cheap city. Never has issues getting work.
Normal start-ups (i.e. not Valley Bubble) and small shops are almost never able to pay that much, but medium and large clients will easily pay that rate for established senior engineers WITH REPUTATIONS.
As much as we like to think technology is a meritocracy, at the end of the day, it always comes down to who you know. The charitable interpretation of that fact is that there aren't a lot of ways to gauge reputation, so it's mostly about who can vouch for you.
when I get my own clients directly, and I'm closer to that. When I'm subcontracted through someone else, it's typically < $100 ($70-$90). I consciously make that trade off sometimes because I'm effectively outsourcing some of the risk - negotiations, collections, etc. And it's sometimes got me in to projects on teams whereas I'd normally be an independent, and the dynamics and range of engagements I've had has been a bit wider because of it. The $120/hr+ engagements I've had tended to be shorter engagements - (< 6 months). The subcontract ones tend to be longer. While I know if I'm getting $80, the people selling me are getting $110 or more, again, I understand they're providing some service that I didn't particularly want to do (or... negotiated for a 9 month engagement, for example).
If you have a name you can charge exorbitant rates for anything, and large companies will pay it. IAmTimCorey is somewhat of a YouTube celebrity with millions of views on pretty basic (but extremely well-made, all-around excellent) videos. His advertised consulting rate is $300/hr. To your second point, Oracle bills its consultants at $400/hr or more, and they're probably making $200-250k.
