[...] Workers and bosses? Those were twentieth-century phrases, according to the CEOs. They were outmoded, old-fashioned, irrelevant concepts. Their new mantra was: "We're all equal, we're all a team, we all work as owners of the company because we all have stock options. So unions are passé, since we all are owners who have a common interest: the harder you work, the more the company will grow, and the more money you will make. Unemployment is a meaningless word in our new economy. Our growth is permanent, so there is never any reason for company layoffs. Place your faith in the company, which will never let you down."

This sounded very reasonalbe to the young high-tech engineers [...] knew little about employment practices in the real world, since the Valley jobs were usually one of the first in their careers. The Valley companies made a specialty of hiring new or recent college graduates rather than seasoned workers in the high-tech industry. These young people were naive, malleable, and could be employed at a cut-rate wage scale. [...]