> This is slavery

Slavery in the sense that Amazon engineers are paid so much that they can't financially take a 50% pay cut to work at a small remote-first company.

I think a better characterization would be that many people are a slave to the lifestyle they've been able to obtain through very high salaries at top 20 tech firms.

That's a tough position to be in. But obviously not slavery by any stretch of the imagination (sell your $3m house, move to a cheaper neighborhood, get a cheaper car, and get a 100% remote job that pays 50% less). Or keep the lifestyle and drive to the office 3 times a week.