Is that not a false dichotomy? I make quite a lot of income and still have lots of time with my kids. At least as much as I'd have anywhere in Europe, I bet. It is not a hard requirement to make good income that you sell your soul to the corporation.

I hope so, but I feel it holds true in general. It's certainly true where I work that no Americans take 5 weeks of vacation.

It's not technically 5 weeks, but I'm American and get 24 days (96% of 5 weeks) of PTO plus 7 company-chosen holidays. And I take every one of them, even if some are just "I'm not working the next 3 Fridays, because I want to putter around the house."

We start with 19 + 7 days and get 1 extra day per year of service until 5 years. (We also get a 4 week contiguous block once every 5 years.)

Original post talked about 5 weeks vacation each year. I suspect the assumption is that working hard in the U.S. would not allow for that 5 week vacation.

Therefore that's 5 less weeks with the kids each year — or about 1.6 years total by the time they leave home for college.

So you either get 5 weeks of vacation or 0?

I have 4 weeks of vacation plus 11 federal holidays, which is close to the norm in nearly every professional job I'm aware of.

I use it and make a very healthy wage when I'm at work.

Then there's parental leave: Sweden offers 390 almost fully paid days plus 90 days optional with minimum payment per child, split on the parents.

I could consider going to the US to earn some money while young but never to start a family.