Serious question: If this is the expectation, is it not possible to sue for the actual damages, which is a lifetime of income?
no because the actual damage is just your lost income at that job. The reason you will never work again is no one wants to hire someone who sues their employer which is not caused by them firing you. It is the same with renting, if you sue your landlord no other landlord will touch you, many places maintain blacklists of tenants who have sued their landlords
Sue after you start working in your new job and are established.
Who would know unless you had a unique name and it hit the newspapers?
It's not unheard of for groups of employers to share (often times illegal) blacklists of known "troublesome" workers. Recruiters supposedly sometimes maintain similar blacklists as well.