You left out the part where you'd be willing to miss all those things for the right price.
Am I correct in assuming you wouldn't? In that case, this isn't really the right argument - even though I agree with you 100%.
Well, that is a fair point. Every man has his price.
I doubt that my skillset would command a salary high enough for me to make that trade-off again, though.
If you'll indulge me in a little history.... Long ago, I had a job where I was a real road warrior. Travelled near 100% of the time. Mostly was on both coasts - NYC and SF. Pay was excellent, and the fact that I was on the company nickel all the time meant that my personal expenses were pretty danged low.
The tradeoff? Weeks at a stretch without being home, and 80-100 hour weeks even if I was around. My health was ruined. I had ulcers and high blood pressure. Nearly cost me my marriage.
The wake up call? Mrs WBill wanted to have kids. We tried (when I was around) for a good while...nada. I went to the doc to make sure that everything was, erm, "functioning properly". Everything checked out OK but before I left, the doc said - kind of tongue in cheek, half serious, half joking - "You know, if you want to have kids, generally you need to be around your wife in order for that to happen."
Talk about a wake up call. I had a new job in six months, kids not long after that. New job was for a lot (a whole lot!!) less money, but included less hours, less travel, less stress. Also less high blood pressure (immediately went back to normal) and less ulcers (I'm not drinking Maalox straight from the bottle anymore :-) )
Mrs WBill and I have trimmed most of the fat out of our budget. We don't go out to eat, hardly ever. Vacations are rare. Up until just recently (I got an offer that I couldn't refuse) I drove a 10+ year old car with 150,000+ miles on it. Mrs WBill clips coupons and shops consignment sales. We squeeze every bit out of every penny that I make.
But, other than cutting out the "Fluff"...my lifestyle is much, much better than when I was making more money. So, having seen both sides of the coin, that delta where I pay 40 or 50 or more percent in taxes for every dollar I earn, has got to be awfully big in order to make it worth my while.
End of story, thanks for listening. :-)