Time to dollars: Python. Ubiquitous, powerful enough, useful for everything, has a friendly learning curve but also a wide variety of concepts in the language.

Highest-value programmer: Probably C, but it's sort of a moot point because I don't think there's a way to become a programmer of above-average value without becoming pretty competent in two or three languages along the way.

Caveats: I'm pretty sure that it varies a great deal based on your inclination and logical ability going in.