I’m all for it as I have taken the brunt of the “tricks of the trade”. Employers brought this on themselves (donning flameproof undies). Under the guise of “bargaining”, I went through the following drills and wised up very fast.
The first time I answered truthfully, the answer was “We can’t beat that but we will review it after you’ve been here a year.”
Next time I added $5,000 to my current wage and when they pulled that routine, I said “OK” - left the next year when they said “things are tough and we can’t give you a raise”. That was after my team and I saved them $250,000 by devising/coding an Automatic Storage and Retrieval System.
During my searches, I found that some outfits weren’t really looking for people, just wanted to get info to establish a pay schedule.
On a couple, when I knew I didn’t want the job, when they asked that question, I’d ask what the responsibilities would be. The tap-dancing that went on would have made Fred Astaire jealous.
The ones that really ticked me off were those who thought I was retired military (I had worked as a civilian at Camp Pendleton). “Well, since you are retired, you already have one income so we can’t(???) offer you a higher wage.” I asked them that since they paid on perceived need, did they pay a guy who had eight kids more than one who had only one? Pained silence - and then the interview was over.
Finally got into a company that recognized good work and paid accordingly. Stayed with them 17 years until I went into contracting.
You have outlined one small example of short-sighted, selfish, destructive, knuckleheaded decision making on the part of a corporation.
Multiply that across the majority of the companies in America, day after day, year after year, involving millions and millions of people.
End result is the anger boils over and the people elect a Communist.