>This is like telling people thinking about becoming a volunteer firefighter that they should factor out of consideration the possibility of a fire.

No, it's the opposite. The vast majority of firefighters eventually have to fight a fire. The vast majority of startups never catch fire.

Your analogy is analogous to swiss cheese. It's near given that a volunteer firefighter will encounter a fire. However, most startups fail and provide poor job security. Equity should not be factored unless it is a tremendous amount. A couple percent is a joke. 10% and up becomes reasonable, and should be understood to be merely a bonus for working for an early-stage company.

Just the job security alone is enough to balance out the equity. A shitty salary is not an excuse.