If you are reasoning about this post based on market forces and equilibrium and what-not, I have failed to communicate what was on my mind. I wasn't thinking,

If you are reasoning about this post based on market forces and equilibrium and what-not, I have failed to communicate what was on my mind. I wasn't thinking, "Pay me $450,000 a year because I'm Raganwald" any more than I was thinking "Pay me $30 an hour because you drive a BMW." What I was really thinking was, "If you give me the impression you are trying to underpay, by whatever irrational measure I have of under- and over-payment, I am going to wonder whether you value my services. And I want to work in a place that values my services." The cash itself is almost irrelevant, and I think that's why perquisites like chefs and masseuses work even though a "rational" employee would rather have the cash. The company going to the trouble of providing a lot of perquisites is sending a signal that they consider the employee's work important, and that matters to some employees. I'll let you know if interns are outbidding me. So far, they aren't for the simple reason that I employ two slaves to do most of my work for me. One I call "CPU" and the other I call "The Compiler." The more of my work I get them to do, the better my value proposition compared to interns ;-)