In an ideal world this would be feasible. Few people have the pricing power for their labor to do this. I'd classify what you call a failed business transaction as a failure of government to enact necessary labor laws.
In the event of a bankruptcy leaving you with unpaid wages, you file an application with the same office that handles unemployment benefits, and they will recompensate you. C-level managers are exempt.
Better to just be transparent about things so employees can properly consider the risk in the situation.
I'm suggesting if people know that the company could go bankrupt, it helps them make decisions.
And that severance is a normal part of a contract otherwise
This seems like some kind of weird libertarian fantasy where companies and employees have access to the same information and use it to make rational economic decisions. In reality, almost any failing company will use its payroll obligations as a bank of last resort to squeeze out that last chance of turning things around, and there's no contract that would protect employees from that.
It's called the world we live in.
If a company's revenues are in decline, if there have been recent layoffs, well then the writing is on the wall.
A company folding should not come as a surprise to any of the employees unless the are utterly in the dark with respect to product development, revenues etc.
It's not a 'libertarian fantasy' to expect that employees etc. will have some idea of these numbers.
There's not much that can be done about solving the 'insolvency severance' deal. Severance beyond legal requirements is a bonus opportunity, and like all bonuses, it's subject to risk.
Most private companies are strictly compartmentalized and keep production employees in the dark about the business side. Some startups do the "anyone can peek at our sales numbers and cash flows internally" thing, but that's definitely an exception even in the startup world.
Nobody ever expects companies to be 'generous' that's not a thing - the issues are in contracts like anything else.
Regardless, I suppose the end result should be to make unemployment kick in faster so you don't need an insolvent company to provide a severance they don't have the funds to provide.
A severance agreement with a bankrupt company is worthless.
Obviously if the company is bankrupt they cannot pay.
Don't work for companies that are going, or could be going bankrupt. In the vast majority of the cases the writing is on the wall long before that happens.
Payroll taxes are just another form of income tax, the company doesn't really pay it, the employee does, economically speaking that money would go to the employee were those payroll taxes not to exist. The the co. does pay it is just an accounting issue.
And besides, if you explained to the employer the risks you forsee in joining their company, they will most likely understand that reason for asking for a higher salary than the norm.
Almost everyone directly involved in production of game titles (i.e. not middleware) would be financially much better off taking the skills they already have and working in another industry—e.g. management for game designers, tech for programmers—with the possible exceptions of artists and musicians.
In the course of my career, there have been many people from a variety of backgrounds that became full fledged software engineers. One was a truck driver who became a top Java coder at the company I used to work for.
And the game engineer has a step up on that guy, since he actually understands how to code. He just needs to understand the way the web works.
If that's true, why are you folks working in open offices and are wearing noise-cancelling headphones?