> From what I’ve heard it’s a great way out of jury duty. When the judge asks if there’s any reason you can’t serve, you can honestly tell him, “If I don’t work, I don’t get paid”.

I've been in several panels from which jury selection was being done, and in the screening-for-hardships portion, those type of things were not, in and of themselves, hardships. Its rather the norm for private employers not to pay for jury duty, leaving you only with the rather minimal jury stipend.