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Comment by tayo42 | Hacker News Reader

I'm always amazed people are out there taking multi month long sabbaticals. Especially in the US

If you save up the money, you can take as much time off from working as you want. The reason why most people can't do that is because they increase their expenses to meet or exceed their income rather than spending less money than they make.

Precisely. Especially among this crowd, the hamster wheel is largely self-imposed.

Other than health insurance (which is often available via a spouse or affordably via a high-deductible market option), what makes taking a multi-month sabbatical more difficult in the US? If anything, the high compensation of SWEs in the US might make it easier to save money for a multi-month break.

Being in the US, I know a lot more people in the US than elsewhere, but I know quite a few people who took a path like this in the US.

Yeah health insurance is the big one. Rent also being high, like this guy lives in NYC from what I saw on the site. I guess the other uses of that cash, like going towards down payments on homes which are also incredibly expensive

Health insurance, rent, car payments, car insurance, utilities. In bay area, these could easily come up to $4k

In what sense does it seem amazing to you?

I answered in the other post, also every job search I've gone through has been a multiple month ordeal, I'd spend the the whole time stressing about the next job.

requires extreme privilege in the US and much of the world. same reason you see trucker protests (whether canada or argentina) are full of business owners not actual labor, because labor can't afford to protest for days/weeks on end without work

Workers have been "protesting for days/weeks on end without work" since forever. Including in far more poverty-striken eras...

Maybe read up a little on the history of labor in the US and globally?

I have

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