That's what was said. LLMs have been reinforced to respond exactly how they do. In other words, that "smarmy asshole" attitude, you describe was a deliberate choice. Why? Maybe that's what the creators wanted, or maybe that's what focus groups liked most.
SkyNTP
While you are not wrong about these different specialities within the trade, there can still be an effect. Let me illustrate:
Suppose you like bananas but not apples. One day there is an apple disease that kills most of the apple trees leading to a collapse of the apple market. You feel relieved because you don't eat bananas anyways. But you go to the supermarket and find that not only are the apple shelves empty, the banana shelves are empty too! Why? Well people still gotta eat, and not everyone is as picky as you, they switched to bananas and now the banana market is under supplied too. And it's not like you can build a banana farm overnight.
Back to electricians, if the salaries of data center electricians increases rapidly, you will find that those electricians who are qualified for both (even if it is just a very small number) might focus on data centres, straining the supply of residential electricians. Just like with banana orchards, it takes time for new electricians to enter the market, and those new hires will further be swayed to the data center specialty first, further straining the residential market.
We can see a real example of this with the price of RAM. RAM manufacturers saw increased demand for data centre RAM so they switched focus to that market and it ended up drying out the consumer side supply, hence the surge in price. And just as with banana plantations and electricians, you can't start up a RAM fab overnight.
Ding ding ding. If they had made changes to improve the game, they would be advertising those changes. No rational company invests time and money into improving a product without capitalizing on those changes. Best case scenario, nothing noticable changes, worst case scenario, they have added anti-consumer features, like drm, game store/3rd party launchers, sign-in, telemetry, ads, and other crap.
Wired ones are great. They even talk to each other on different floors.
Accountability in the court of public opinion, the last line of defense. The public needs to understand that institutions will not save us. They are corruptable.
Okay, but I don't think the scenario you are describing is particularly relevant to the comic. This looks like a white collar job application, not a blood diamond mine or sweatshop.
So back to the point at hand. The question is, why do you want to work here? It's a super relevant question. If all that was important to you is money, you'd go work on an oil rig. But most people don't do that. Thousands of intangible factors someone might choose a workplace besides just for cash. Work/life balance. Personal interest. Comfortable work environment. Relevant experience. Proximity to home. Perks...
The point of the question or interviews in general is to stand out from other applicants. The answer "I need cash" doesn't make you stand out.
You don't need the latest Nvidea GPU to self host your own computing. You don't even need ssds. You arguably don't even need that much RAM. A ten year old Dell work fine. Are you self hosting your own AI? Probably not. So what? AI is not mature enough that it is a necessity.
Are computing prices coming down? Unlikely before the AI bubble pops. I think we have taken for granted that computing will perpetually improve price/performance. This is not sustainable.
Mere statement of facts is enough to humiliate Trump, as evidenced by the recent "pedo protector" heckle.
They did answer your question. Same way in a "capitalist" society: those who take more responsibility or risk earn more benefit. More/better food, more rank, more commission, more salary, better housing, better medical care, etc.
There are plenty of examples of this happening and also not happening under both capitalism and communism. Is there a trend? That's a very long debate.
You aren't wrong about those actions but it overestimates the importance of "might makes right" and seriously underestimates the importance of soft power. The meme you shared commits the same fallacy, as is the current US administration.
What crystal ball told you this was temporary? Every day for the past few years the consumer market moves further and further into serving only the wealthy. The people in power don't care about selling RAM or other scraps to peasants.
You are living the consequences of what happens when a market is no longer a free market (where companies compete on merit) and instead an oligopoly, where companies extract all the value for themselves at the expense of everyone else. Now bow to your tech overlords, peasant.