Except it doesn't. Being unemployed isn't fun, it isn't "a holiday". Most people feel stressed because of that uncertainty in their life. There is also a strong social stigma associated with unemployment, no one goes around at a party gloating about being unemployed.
You should read up, or better yet talk to people, about retiring. So many people struggle with retirement. It is hard to find a new purpose for life after a big chunk of who you were is gone. Most people I have met tend to take up volunteer work, charity, running some hobby project or some other busywork (I know more than one person who retired into playing MMORPGs fulltime). Most hackers retire into one project or another.
If you have never been without a job, you have no idea. You are hardwired to seek social acceptance and reward and a job is the main way society says you should achieve that.
The (UK) Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health would disagree. They've been pushing hard on a "helping people with MH problems get back to work"; not just for the benefits to wider society but for the benefits to the individual of better mental health.
I disagree entirely, for two reasons:
1) Working is all about becoming a part of society, of contributing, of belonging. Few people can take a prolonged period of not contributing without some level of depression.
2) The overall quality of life of people is determined by the application of time and labor saving devices, as well as by technical enhancements to lifestyle and health. There is no higher improvement of quality of life than low infant mortality and longer lifespans. All of these things are delivered by a society that embraces specialisation as a way of increasing productivity by everyone.
Sure, you'll get no argument from me that pointless consumerism backed up by debt-based spending is not the path forwards, but that is an entirely different proposition to stopping working altogether. Only the committed hobo will get satisfaction from a life like that.
Obviously these are things that are harder to improve in a Western society, so the big gains are in developed countries. My original comment was probably slipping towards rhetoric-ville, but the point still stands - maximising the chance your child will make it's 5th birthday and that you and your family will live as long as possible definitely trumps most things.
You should read up, or better yet talk to people, about retiring. So many people struggle with retirement. It is hard to find a new purpose for life after a big chunk of who you were is gone. Most people I have met tend to take up volunteer work, charity, running some hobby project or some other busywork (I know more than one person who retired into playing MMORPGs fulltime). Most hackers retire into one project or another.
If you have never been without a job, you have no idea. You are hardwired to seek social acceptance and reward and a job is the main way society says you should achieve that.