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Comment by yread | Hacker News Reader

> downtime -- the amount of time software engneers spend unemployed (due to economic cycle, startup bankruptcy, downsizing, etc.)

funny but from my circle of friends I never heard of anyone being unemployed and looking for job for more than a month. I myself had exactly 0 time of looking for a job in 12 years of working. I'm in Europe, though, we're ridiculously underpaid compared to the US I think. Very few people earn more than 100K.

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Off topic, but I must: comparing salaries alone makes no sense. In Europe, you don't have to pay $250K/child for college education, you don't have to pay $20K/year/family in health insurance, etc.

Well you need to consider purchasing power parity. In many European countries, these things are paid out of taxes (but also provided at a lower cost in total), so you can't just deduct/ignore them.

We pay taxes in the US as well :-) Maybe a bit less than in Europe, but we get very little in return (no subsidized daycare, no 30 days of vacation, etc). US tax revenue is mostly spent on maintaining all the 170+ military bases around the world, aircraft carriers, nuclear weapons, etc.

60% of federal budget is social security, unemployment, medicare, and health spending. 16% is military. I think the bigger problem is that money spent in healthcare doesn't go nearly as far as it does elsewhere due to bloated healthcare costs.

True, but healthcare and unemployment, etc., as wasteful as they are, still improve my quality of life, while paying for defending rich countries like Japan or Germany, does not.

>defending rich countries like Japan or Germany, does not

I am all for non-interventionist policies, but I am not so sure this is so black-and-white. There is definitely a benefit to protecting our allies and ensuring democratic societies remain as democratic as possible. The amount that it benefits you on a day to day basis is probably impossible to quantify, but there is definitely a benefit at a very high level, economically speaking.

What do you think is the relation between vacation days and taxes?

OK, you got me there - typed too fast. But, aside form taxes, if I wanted to take more time off, it only makes sense I should expect less pay, right?

12 years of working means you just missed the dot-com crash of 2000-2002.

True, it also means he's too young to face age discrimination.

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