> No, that's simply unfair to the companies who don't have billions of dollars in free cash flow or effectively infinite amounts of VC money.
I mean.... so what? Why should I, as an engineer, care if some companies are suffering under the "unfairness" of high salaries?
> which has a side effect of creating an oligopoly on talent
It doesn't really make sense to use the work oligopoly, which has certain negative connotations, for a situation where companies are merely choosing to outbid others.
I would only use the term oligopoly, if there is some sort of unfair barrier to entry, such as because of some government law that is hindering competition.
> I mean.... so what? Why should I, as an engineer, care
You shouldn't, you should always maximize your income. That wasn't my point. My point was the guy shouldn't interview at a 5-person bootstrapped startup and act bewildered when they cannot offer Facebook level comp packages.
> oligopoly
It's absolutely an oligopoly. There are a small number of firms who possess the capital to compete on salary and that creates a extremely high barrier to entry. It's not a bad thing, it's just the reality of the situation. There's plenty of options though, e.g. don't decide your HQ must be in San Francisco.
I mean.... so what? Why should I, as an engineer, care if some companies are suffering under the "unfairness" of high salaries?
> which has a side effect of creating an oligopoly on talent
It doesn't really make sense to use the work oligopoly, which has certain negative connotations, for a situation where companies are merely choosing to outbid others.
I would only use the term oligopoly, if there is some sort of unfair barrier to entry, such as because of some government law that is hindering competition.