[cahoot_bird]

Counter opinion: You're going to be one of many applicant because everyone else is embracing WFH trend too, so you are competing with everyone, especially with some much experience to show, or a portfolio of trending technologies.

It might be that a dev that has a money cushion and is willing and able to relocate can compete on a level others can't because competition would only be localized.

OP was unemployed a year. Time adds up, that's a lot of money.

[dj_mc_merlin]

> OP was unemployed a year. Time adds up, that's a lot of money.

Luckily my government gives me a full year of unemployment benefits at 2/3rds of my salary besides my savings. Obviously, I don't wish to test my luck regardless, but not everywhere is as cutthroat as the US.

[kjksf]

More accurately: your government takes your money and then, maybe, gives it back to you in the form of unemployment benefits and the like, minus significant processing fees.

The alternative is to use the money the government doesn't take and save it for your future "unemployment benefit".

[dj_mc_merlin]

The government would give me more than I would be able to save myself in a year. Over multiple years, I would be able to save more efficiently than the government, true. That's assuming everything goes perfectly however, so I view it as a form of insurance: I make less in order to have less anxiety that I will not be able to provide for myself and my dependents if the overlords decide I am no longer worthy of my job. It's a tradeoff, but one that I will gladly make. As a social good, that money also goes into helping those that were not as lucky as me to be able to make good easy money. And perhaps one day I might be like them too, who knows?