If the cost of living wasn't so high, I suspect the smartest would choose to do other things. For example, looking at JPL engineering salaries on glassdoor, the median seems to be around $100k. That's just not enough if you want to live in Pasadena comfortably, especially if you compare it with a FAANG salary.
It's almost like the economy is doing exactly what it was setup to do: extract as much money from the system as possible for the good of the share holders. Overtime, the system starts to decay because of the initial goal.
Yup, lack of societal wealth and scarcity are driving the decisions of where to work. Personally, I might have become a teacher (instead of an engineer) if COL wasn't so high. High COL is a sign of societal wealth deprivation.
