I'm with you for (a) and (b). The other thing I've found working as a consultant (well, an "off-site contractor" anyway) is that the freedom from "office hours" means I can structure my working day around time with my young kids (i.e. three meals with them and then working on into the evening) and still get lots of work done.

Of course this could just be due to my current project being particularly favourable, hence my interest in start-up ideas to try once it ends...

Personally, I figure that if I stay at $BIGCORP I will have far less time to connect with my kids--over the long term--than if I work for myself. I might have to front-load the time a bit as I get set up but this is not a given, given the small hourly commitments possible.

But the "free" healthcare makes it a tough decision.

Working as a permi this is certainly the case, but if you can get your living costs down and work on a more ad hoc basis (i.e. contracting or consulting) then you can take big blocks of time off to use as you see fit.

Personally I wouldn't want to work in the US right now. The worker protections are practically non-existent (advantageous if you own a company but if you work for one, not so much).

Health care has always been problematic in the US but I suspect by your comment you mean that you don't like that you have to have it now. Not having insurance would be an insane level of risk to put on your family (especially when coupled with the risk of a start up). One of the bigger mistakes the US did with health care IMO was letting companies pay it for the employees. That creates a terrible lock in incentive and removes health care from the person's budget so when you do wish to try something else (e.g. a start up) you're not prepared for the sudden jump in expenses.