Stepping back from any emotional assessment, the growth of these businesses was not commensurate with the hiring. You can look at both the financial reporting and the economic indicators from that period and a reasonable measure of growth was warranted but not at the level these companies [edited from "comments"] hired at. It was more of an irrational tragedy of the commons, where companies were hiring because they were afraid of losing access to talent due to other company's hiring. It was not rational through the lens of business growth.