This isn't true at all. Even between two perfectly rational actors, there's a lot of hidden information in the hiring process, contradictory goals, and orthogon

This isn't true at all. Even between two perfectly rational actors, there's a lot of hidden information in the hiring process, contradictory goals, and orthogonal goals. This demands negotiation. At it's most basic, the company wants to pay me the least I will accept. I want to be paid as much as possible. These are contradictory, so some middle ground needs to be found. There's also a lot of hidden information, on both sides: What's the most the company is willing to pay? What's the least I'm willing to take? We can also have orthogonal goals: personally, I put a pretty high value on PTO, so there's room for trading salary expectations for additional time off. By not negotiating, all you're doing is leaving money on the table. The company is going to represent it's interests, you have to represent yours.