Sure, because your average US company has the plantation mentality - "the more time the employee spends on the job, the more productive he is", which is obviously not true for software development. The US company sees vacation as wasted time, not an investment into the employee's productivity and well-being.

First of all no one can be sure about such a thing. Secondly why would you not just get a second temporary job on your vacation days. In fact if you're so desperate for money do you have a second job already?