For those who are young, single, and are open to adventure, the endless outsourcing provides another option: pack up and leave high cost of living areas or the US entirely. There are plenty of places where you can get a fraction of a US salary while living a quality of life beyond what the US offers. US companies have return to office mandates so they can fire US workers. But if you're a US citizen living abroad and willing to accept 1/4th the salary of a person in California (and living in a place with 1/10th the living costs), companies get the best of both worlds: an employee they feel they can trust while also undercutting wages. Yeah, it sucks for people still in the US, but it's been great for me.
"pack up and leave high cost of living areas or the US entirely."
The lower cost domestic areas still can't compete with the labor cost of low cost countries. Most low cost countries have tradeoffs when it comes to rights and freedoms enjoyed in most developed (high cost) counties.