I tend to ignore any comment that starts with "you misunderstand basic economics". That's not so much the arrogant tone but rather the crass dogmatism that pervade those comments.

Change the set of axioms and the initial parameters and you end-up with invalid definition and properties of market dynamics. I guess OP probably believes that markets reach equilibrium by themselves.

>Assuming perfect information, yes, "supply and demand". Since you are so eager to offhand dismiss people, you can now research that one condition you conveniently left out.

There's plenty of information about salaries at software companies floating around. Everyone knows (or could know with a quick search) what the salary for each level at the big tech firms are, as well as what the typical pay at startups is.

It's a bit harder to do for a fresh grad in the middle of nowhere that's not already in Silicon Valley or even the same continent.

However the information problem for employees isn't actually all that bad, as you say. The problem for employers trying to figure out whether people can actually perform is much, much harder. (But luckily they can usually diversify their bets amongst more than one employee.)