Did people not also take jobs at google in order to milk the situation for everything they could?
Could those people not have foreseen an economic downturn, which happens at least every 8-10 years the last one being 14 years ago?
What specific lie did google tell, or are you speculating?
I think your framing of this as a predictable cycle is deceptive. This isn't about regular crashes. This is about a temporary pandemic-driven situation. Yes, employees hired in the rush could have seen this coming. But it's unfair to assume 100% of them did. I don't think it's unfair to think it would be shockingly foolish for the entire tech leadership class to not have seen it coming.
All I'm saying is: Own it.
I'm not saying it was evil. I would probably have made similar decisions.
But I would have been more transparent about it. I would have hired people on contracts with the explicit understanding that this was surge hiring. That way no one would be surprised when the contracts weren't renewed. That would have been honest.