The amazing thing I've noticed is that employees of many startups have no problem paying a "startup tax" wherein they pay n times the current going rate for x s

The amazing thing I've noticed is that employees of many startups have no problem paying a "startup tax" wherein they pay n times the current going rate for x service so long as the service is provided by their company, and the cost is deducted from their pay (+ some inevitably worthless stock options). In other words, pay some employees below market rate, add in worthless stock options, and so long as you keep the "free" soda and dry cleaning cleaning coming (at a 2-4x cost over what they'd pay for themselves) coming, they're fine. Even if the fee they're paying is far more expensive than just going out to get those services themselves. Once that ends, growth hacking ends and everybody gets burned.