Many (the majority?) companies are not public, so even if I agreed with your point about publicly traded companies that doesn't really change my point, since we

Many (the majority?) companies are not public, so even if I agreed with your point about publicly traded companies that doesn't really change my point, since we could very easily (without it being contrived) limit ourself purely to the scope of private companies. Of course no one is obligated to accept a job they don't want (unless the whispers of Trump bringing back the draft end up being true...sigh...), but I'm not entirely sure what your point is? I don't think anyone is saying that these companies are committing crimes, just that it's kind of crappy to take advantage of people that you know are desperate. I'm not saying there should be a law against it, I'm not saying that the FTC should get involved, I'm not saying that you shouldn't apply to companies that are doing this, but I am saying that it's kind of shitty to try and see if someone you're hiring is struggling, and then use that as a means of lowballing. It's a dick move. The court of public opinion, in my mind, has a lower bar than anything involving "enforcement".