Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, maybe it isn't a "windfall" to someone who lives in the tech world and comes to expect such good fortune and thinks their effort should be rewarded in an outsized way. I'm sure we think it's deserved in a relative sense. But it is most definitely a windfall to the rest of the world (even the rest of the country), who work equally hard, under worse conditions, for their entire lives and cannot even hope to earn…
The windfall typically isn’t anywhere close to millions of dollars for regular employers. We’re talking about payouts on the level of buying a new car or placing a down payment on a home.
I think you meant regular employees? From my limited experience, the windfall is actually much more than a new car or down payment and can reach into the millions of dollars if the stock rises a couple hundred percent. Most of the unicorn startups that have gone IPO were offering stock options close to or above the million dollar range for senior engineers. Don’t forget the refreshes. The big limiter is actually taxes which take close to half.