The article provides examples of how growing businesses (e.g., start-ups founded by the hackers who post here) can get highly skilled employees at bargain salaries as they scale up, making their companies grow well and making the newly hired job-seekers happy.
If you give less, you will get less.
But remember in a small and growing business you can look at stock options as part of the compensation. If the newly hired person really believes the company has a chance, that could make them very happy even with bargain salaries.
Also, remember that set up often is harder than maintenance, so even if you expect the bargain talent to leave when the economy picks up later, you can often gain a lot from having them for a while and then replace them by someone less experienced at that point.
If you only have a dozen employees and you lose a couple or a few key employees that can horribly impact your future. It's risky and hopefully there's a plan set up to mitigate that risk.
Of course, it's also excellent advice when you are paying market rate or above market prices for labor, people still leave, if not quite as quickly.
I find that technical people especially seem to be not particularly motivated to maximize their income. Treat your underpaid people well, and you can often keep them around for a few years.