Haven't national research labs solved this problem? Nobody I talked to at APL seemed to have any concern about shortage of R&D opportunities and although it wasn't Silicon Valley money (which is not sustainable long-term anyway), I don't recall anyone complaining about the salary either.
There was a thread on this on HN last month: "Ask HN: Has anyone worked at the US National Labs before?"[1]
Most comments note how the pay is less than FAANG; eg the top voted comments:
"Pay is pretty good by almost any standards except FAANG."
And elsewhere:
"The pay at a DOE lab is less than FAANG (PhD student interns might be around $80k/yr and starting staff scientists maybe $130k/yr), but the tradeoff for some people would be the research-flavor of the work, and the flexibility."
I'm assuming they meant sustainable for a single person. The percentage of people holding such a salary long-term could be very low. I don't know whether or not it is, but that is how I read the comment.
The national research labs are great, but there are only 17 of those, and they don't employ that many people when compared to the software industry. Good gigs if you can get them, certainly.
