While I think that's equitable, you could also see how an employer might try to keep a larger share. And most employees would probably agree to getting something substantially less.

> you could also see how an employer might try to keep a larger share

But trying to keep a larger share means you lose out on all of it, as you will get outbid.

If they can save other companies 1.2 million as well (which they will because few companies are so unique) then their price will naturally creep up towards that value as others will be willing to pay more because it's a good deal.

Basically that's what those companies did, and then some of those engineers started 1 trillion dollar corporations since they couldn't convince anyone to pay them 600k

Because when you're a large monopolistic corporation receiving billions of dollars every quarter on the basis of work which was carried out decades ago, there are always going to exist many inefficiencies which unnecessarily cost you millions of dollars; many of these inefficiencies are created by your own employees and could have been avoided through a bit of additional foresight. Also, there always exists many other engineers on the market which you didn't hire and which could also have saved you millions and they would have done it for a lot less money. Google receives a huge number of job applications and the selection process involves a great deal of randomness/luck.

> Google receives a huge number of job applications and the selection process involves a great deal of randomness/luck.

Google receives a huge number of applications from unqualified people. They take the very few that are Google-level.

Please... They trash the vast majority of resumes on the basis of silly things like the candidate changed jobs too often, they didn't study at a fancy enough college or they can't recall a specific algorithm on a whiteboard. It's a joke. They're amateurs.

If you're too good, they will feel threatened and not hire you. It's all politics inside these megacorps. Engineers will never allow real talent to be hired on the same team as them... Why would they compromise their position within the company hierarchy?

They'd rather only hire moderate talent; just smart enough to get the job done but dumb enough to not get in the way of your next promotion.