I think you vastly over-estimate the value that engineers produce. A good portion of this value is predicated on the reality that consumers and businesses have cash to spend. These days, most tech revenue comes from advertising, hosting, or consumer services. If consumers stop spending, consumer services contract which will cause advertising budgets to tighten.
The only relatively safe haven in tech during a recession is cloud services as long as the cloud enables companies to reduce head count and cut costs. Otherwise capital expenditure budget cuts would hit clouds as well.
No, my argument is that the actual output that many engineers produce has very little intrinsic value and only produces value in so far as it is of utility to someone. Once the market for advertising or consumers dries up, there is a reduced demand for the utility of the things engineers produce.
Once the "market dries up" doesn't that mean there's reduced demand for everyone. Or is there some reverse black hole that CEO pay gets regurgitated from?
The only relatively safe haven in tech during a recession is cloud services as long as the cloud enables companies to reduce head count and cut costs. Otherwise capital expenditure budget cuts would hit clouds as well.