Patrick Boyle on youtube has a good explanation of what's going on in the industry: https://youtu.be/3ef5IPpncsg?feature=shared

tl;dw: some of it is anti-trust avoidance and some of it is knee-capping competitors.

Nobody is paying $10mm to $100mm comp packages to bench people.

They want an ROI. Taking them away from competitors is a side bonus.

Its a great way to kneecap collective growth and development.

So wage suppression is good because it’s better for the _collective_?

Wage suppression? Its the opposite were talking about here. Pay large amounts of money to make sure people don't work on challenging problems.

But sure you cant try and argue that's wage suppression.

This is the Gavin Belson strategy to starve Pied Piper of distributed computing experts; nobody get's to work on his Signature Edition Box 3!

The comment I was responding to was implying that it would be better for the collective if Meta was not paying these exorbitant salaries. You said “it [paying high salaries] is a great way to kneecap collective growth and development.”

In other words, you’re suggesting that _not_ paying high salaries would be good for collective growth and development.

And if Meta is currently willing to pay these salaries, but didn’t for some reason, that would be the definition of wage suppression.

Oh ya? If I am willing to pay my cleaner $350, but she only charges and accepted an offer of $200, I am engaging in the definition of wage suppression?

Wage suppression is anytime a worker makes less than the absolute maximum an employer is willing to pay? That would include just about everyone making a paycheck.

Based on my cursory knowledge of the term, wage suppression here would be if FB manipulated external factors in the AI labor market so that their hire would accept a "lowball" offer.

You gotta re-check your position. This is an extreme interpretation of wage suppression.

This has never been the goal of any business, despite what they say.

We should also say that "being really lucky is the best way to make sure that other people don't have as much luck as you do"

Who would be the first-rate companies in this analogy?