> while giving them breathing room to figure out 'what next?'
I'm dubious of this claim. My experience from observing many friends in this situation at different economic levels (enough savings to take a break in US. Unemployment benefits in Europe) is that they rarely use the time to figure out what is next. Instead they most often use the time to relax and only spend time trying to figure out what is next when pressured to do so by impending financial circumstances (doing nothing depletes savings for those in America and unemployment benefits run out eventually in Europe).
Whether the amount of time afforded by savings or unemployment is 3 months or 2+ years, it's only the last 1-2 months where most people spend time figuring things out.
This is a very nice way of saying “I asked my poor friends to confirm what I want to believe.”
When all you have to look forward to your entire life is some slog of service industry jobs with little to no benefits or vacation, of course you maximize the amount of time you spend on your own life. Poor people deserve to relax, and I have never had a job in my tech career that compared to the stress or exhaustion of my minimum wage jobs.
If I get fired now, I’d be happy to go find my next career move. Back then, you would have to drag me into another restaurant.
You seem to know a lot more about his friends then would be expected. How do you know they are poor? I had a high paying job for years but couldn’t have afforded not working for two years without seriously draining retirement savings at the time.
I'm dubious of this claim. My experience from observing many friends in this situation at different economic levels (enough savings to take a break in US. Unemployment benefits in Europe) is that they rarely use the time to figure out what is next. Instead they most often use the time to relax and only spend time trying to figure out what is next when pressured to do so by impending financial circumstances (doing nothing depletes savings for those in America and unemployment benefits run out eventually in Europe).
Whether the amount of time afforded by savings or unemployment is 3 months or 2+ years, it's only the last 1-2 months where most people spend time figuring things out.