Some companies do love the race to the bottom, but these don’t last long. Others seek instead to make remarkable things, and for these it makes sense to throw

Some companies do love the race to the bottom, but these don’t last long. Others seek instead to make remarkable things, and for these it makes sense to throw money at the best talent. What does it matter if an engineer costs 1m/yr if they make something worth 100m - 1000m? In fact, it’s a bargain. This phenomenon doesn’t exclusively exist in America, but the environment there is more conducive to entrepreneurs swinging for the fences than most other countries. They’ve also been playing at a high level for much longer than most, so investors there have lots of wealth to fund startups. So that’s where you find the big salaries as well.