Computer touching wagies and so socially stunted they’ll never form effective union.

The industry is so niche, the technology is so heavily customized, and the people so idiosyncratic that I think forming a union shouldn't be that hard. The real dampener is that the pay for these jobs is always far above the median. Five years of experience and you're reaching towards six figures. Ten years and you're well over the line. And in Silicon Valley, the sky is the limit. A master's or phd in your field means you're looking at $200k, $300k, $400k...

If there's a big drop in wages (and considering the real estate prices in the neighborhoods where these businesses exist) something's got to give. Maybe you get unions. Maybe you just get a bunch of businesses collapsing on themselves Twitter-style and forcing people back into the "indie company-in-my-garage" model. Maybe everyone becomes contractors.

But this isn't sustainable in any serious sense.

Programmers are already ridiculously overpaid lol

Yeah, no

All devs must go through at least a year of unemployment according to these mofos

I think it's an unfair and naive assumption to think VPs all keep their jobs. I've seen some pretty nasty game of thrones plays by executive leadership during layoffs due to consolidation of teams and remits. Someone might get a bonus that doesn't deserve it, but someone is going to get let go at a high level (albeit with a generous severance not offered to the rest of the employees).

Also, when new senior leadership comes in, it's not uncommon for them to let heads roll at the leadership level to fill out the team with folks they know or trust. I'm not shedding a tear about where those folks will go on to find similar employment, but I think there's a misconception about how safe those positions actually are.