A friend of mine is an electrician, an in-demand skilled job. He can make +/- 10% working for the government directly, at Lawrence Livermore, or in the private sector. Each has tradeoffs like how interesting the work is or the hours, but in the end the government isn't really less competitive.

Now imagine Facebook steps in and wants to hire all the electricians and is willing to pay $750k/yr. Obviously the entire system becomes fucked and the government (or even "normal" businesses) won't be able to find electricians.

Don't get me wrong... I like my tech salary. But inserting a player into any market or economy with effectively unlimited resources breaks it.

If Facebook could create a local monopoly or competitive advantage to pay electricians $1M/yr, they would to deny the skills to their competitors.

I found this trying to Google around for NASA scientists pay during the space race. Turns out maybe money wasn’t the biggest factor involved.

tldr; Korolev, the lead Soviet engineer during the space race died in the middle of it from colon cancer and they never recovered.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/07/11/this...