> This presumes that all employees are incapable of saving money or seeking alternate employment quickly.

It doesn't presume anything of the sort: you don't need to make a statement about "all" employees to observe that the average American under 35 has under $10,000 in liquid savings[1]. That can disappear pretty quickly with a car or home accident, unexpected injury, or legal liability. Even outside of those, it's not very much to live on outside of LCoL areas for more than a couple of months.

The average American is also not a tech worker: they're somewhere in the lower middle class, and may or may not have the ability to transition rapidly between jobs (our current funhouse-mirror economy aside). You're making extraordinary presumptions about millions of people, presumptions with very real and material consequences.

But to go even further: we should not be punishing people with the threat of hunger or exposure for failing to keep liquid savings! The current economy doesn't encourage liquid (i.e., conservative) saving techniques, and American education does not consistently include financial planning. The vast majority of Americans are blamelessly "winging it" and should not be punished for that.

To tie a bow around it: I don't need to make a universal statement about every employee in America to correctly observe that many employees are materially threatened by at-will employment. Attempting to promote this into universal claims is bewildering at best; it's immediately obvious to everyone that plenty of people can survive an unexpected firing.

[1]: https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/average-ame...

Not being able to (meaningfully) save money is a harsh reality for many people, what are you talking about?

The fact that some (tech/highly skilled) workers have actual leverage doesn't negate the fact that many, MANY others don't have any.

50% of the US population would be ruined by an unexpected $500 bill.

We can't operate on how things ought to be, we have to look at how things are actually...and they're bad.

My dad, career Air Force, was once given the job of coaching the privates on the Air Force base. It seems that about 50% of them were unable to pay their bills, which caused friction between the base commander and the local merchants.

The privates were all paid the same, every two weeks.

Half were able to pay their bills and did well. The other half would spend their paychecks as fast as possible, and would run out of money after 1 week. The 2nd week was spent begging, borrowing, and in general being a deadbeat.

My dad would sit down with them, go over their spending, and prepare budgets for them. Literally none of them were able to adhere to those budgets.

Again, 50%.

Don't forget that 40% of the population is above or below working age. So perhaps it's only 20% of working age people.