Wish that was the rule in my state (Florida). It’s a nightmare, you have to fight for a ballpark out the door quote before you come in, which I typically do, and I’ve still had either the market fee or another dealer fee pop on at the end after visiting in person.

“If not now, when? And if not there, where?“

“Our system is by far the best in the world, because everyone can compete equally“

It’s the nonsense that the mythical business owner is the pinnacle of human achievement and wisdom.

You forgot to add the ecological cost of this system...

“Or perhaps - I’m speculating here - was informed by a course at a major university taught by a professor who never ran a business, so really never participated in a capitalist economy.”

Ironically our waning international influence could potentially be a large net positive in the future. Much of America’s success in the past 60 years has been based around the pursuit of America leading the world in democratic rule.

Depends on the situation! If it were a very public layoff where it would be commonplace for an HR person to recognize the event, if you’ve got enough money to bank-roll yourself for a long enough time, and if your sabbatical story is cool enough - you’ll do just fine.

...And yet it works a heck of a lot better than planned economies.

There are millions of people in this country that don’t have clean water 

This year will be interesting in that regard - I’m currently being asked to restructure my business unit and cut costs to entirely unreasonably targets to meet board directives, which of course have been issued based entirely on how much money they want and has nothing to do with the long term growth or sustainability…

That is 85932 cubic inches, aka 1408 liters, aka 1408 kilos of water, aka 3100 lbs. Just barely under the payload of the heaviest duty package available for an F-150

Define “planned economies.”

How much longer do we get to consider ourselves lucky?

That’s not how societal growth happens. There was no “plan”, just like there is no plan for how economies will work 100 years from now. ‘

Not only that, but your full-time job when you’re unemployed is getting another job. It's not a vacation. 

Be careful what you wish for. I’ve been in that position and it felt like anything but a sabbatical.

“support from HR in finding a new job”

As someone who’s burnt out at work, is it bad I always feel a twinge of jealously when I read about layoffs with cushy severance? I’d love a 3 month sabbatical with support from HR in finding a new job... 

So a couple decades I was working for one of the largest companies in the world. 2 days before Christmas, the GM of our little office came to us with this news: