The safety net of (primarily European) certain countries is definitely easier to live with when losing a job. In theory you can probably continue indefinitely on some of those welfare payments, although for many people that leads to another kind of burnout (boreout?) again.
It’s also really not comfortable. I am sure you could live on it indefinitely as a kind of ascetic performance but people who actually need that to survive are usually very keen on getting other sources of income. Some of it undeclared and evading taxes, but that’s another problem.
Overall I think there’s a decent compromise to be found there. I am happy for the society to ensure that as many people as possible have a guaranteed bare minimum to survive, which provides opportunities to find better. If some people are content with surviving, well. More power to them. They are not in big enough numbers to matter anyway (the sums involved are dwarfed by companies’ tax fraud).
Yes, many countries that aren’t the US provide health insurance regardless of your employment status.
Some countries (Germany, Switzerland, maybe others) will pay employment insurance even if you quit of your own accord and lower the elimination period if you had reasons to do so (as certified by a MD)
the issue is conflating work/livelyhood/job which arent always synonyms.
your survival being predicated upon engaging in state-enforced financial exploitation by a capitalist and being separated from the value of your own labor
isnt quite the same as
engaging in activities deaigned to produced a beneficial outcome to the self and society at a point in the future
Has there been a time or place where this isn't the case?
To quote Karl Marx "He who does not work does not eat."