Perhaps one way of thinking about FAANG pay level is where the money is coming from. FAANG can pay engineers a lot because they make a lot of money (in a very i

Perhaps one way of thinking about FAANG pay level is where the money is coming from. FAANG can pay engineers a lot because they make a lot of money (in a very indirect way, it's like what people always said about "If I make my company a million dollars, I should get a portion of that", just very diluted through many layers). FAANG makes a lot of money because they're huge companies that make money from the entire world. This is unlike most startups and smaller/mid-size tech companies in the US (where FAANG originated). In a way, they're companies who've globalized successfully. The money that they pay engineers, come from money they made from other people all around the world. (maybe citation needed -- I didn't do any research on this claim, don't know % of money a Google/etc would make from the world vs from the US.) When you think about it this way, FAANG pay isn't truly a bubble, it's more of an effect of their globalization. In that sense, I don't think they would "pop" per se on a timer (although they may eventually pop if their business falls over for one reason or another, like how AOL/Yahoo/Pets.com etc. did back in the 2000). It's also a little bit unsettling that when thinking about it this way, it's somewhat of a transfer of wealth from people across the world, to a small set of people in Silicon Valley. True, the companies are providing something of value to the world, so maybe it's not so much a transfer, but the end result is still that money was collected from people in other countries, and paid to SV engineers/employees. Again note that I may be completely wrong in my framework of thinking. Just something I thought up while reading the article, no reference or research on any of the claims.