I think you fail to understand the length to which corporations have gone in the Dark Future. This is not today. This is not our world.
The Corps of 2077 are utterly ethics-free, rapacious entities driven solely by their own greed. You are a disposable entity to them. It's not about covering costs - that was long long ago. it's not about employment - the average person in Night City makes (legally) 3200 eb per year. Per year. There is no fair treatment of workers or consumers. There is only profit.
The Corps don't care about you, the world, fairness, ethics, or anything, really. They are huge and terrifying.
In the Corebook adventure section, some Nomads are living above a toxic waste dump in Northern California. They don't know it (yet), but it's going to leak. The Corp that put it there would be embarrassed (not indictable, just embarrassed) if it came out, so they send a hit team to kill all the Nomads. 100s of people. This sort of thing is absolutely normal for 2020-2077 Corporatons. Just routine business.
In this future, yes, regular people are slaves. If that model is profiting, great. More likely she will be used up and discarded. If not already. Because there are always more.
That's Cyberpunk. That's why cyberpunk. You are fighting that. You are a rebel.