Dude, the stock you get as a Facebook employee is literally money. It vests every month, so you can go to a broker every month and sell it for thousands of dollars of hard cash. No waiting for IPO, no hoping the stock goes up, no 4 year vesting, no board approvals, no nothing.
It may be close, but it is not literally money. If it were, then why wouldn't they just pay the money rather than going through the hassle and expense (for both the company and the employee) of issuing stock?
But that's all beside the point. I understand why these sorts of things may be appealing to people. They just aren't to me, so they don't factor in as "compensation" when I'm evaluating a job opportunity.
