I agree with you that most of the general HR arguments don’t hold water and are philosophical at best. All they try to do is hide the fact that you are not paid the way you are because of your talent or efforts. In most EU/commonwealth countries you can thank unionism for the benefits you have.

For multinationals, one thing to note is the location of the employees normally has very little to do with the talent and staff costs but mostly tax, politics/corruption, networking, or leadership preferences. Employee talent and costs are really generally not the focus of why companies setup shop where they do.

It can mess with your mind, and feel really unjust when you know of US sized bonuses going out that equate to more than full time salary in other regions doing equivalent roles. Even staff that are generally mediocre can often wing it whilst others go over and above getting a pittance.

It helps my sanity to know that we are all just cogs in a system and it’s not at all personal. Salary is a cost for doing business in some locations and everyone is completely replaceable. Also AI is probably going to wipe the floor of us all soon enough…