But the point is that if you drive to a gas station, there is gas to buy. Imagine you drive a delivery truck, the price of gas goes up, and you go out of busine

But the point is that if you drive to a gas station, there is gas to buy. Imagine you drive a delivery truck, the price of gas goes up, and you go out of business. It means you didn't have a profitable enough business to handle the reality of the market you operate in. Companies that complain about not being able to afford decent developers are just saying they don't have a strong enough company to cover the costs of the inputs to their business. It doesn't matter if the input is oil, steel, baking powder, or software developers. Companies that can afford high developer salaries when there is a shortage are the ones that get a high enough ROI on a developer's time that they can actually buy more of that time at the current market rates, and still have enough left over to pay the executives. It's not about being cheap vs. generous.