>This, of course, requires that you live in one of the Nordic countries, or another welfare state. We don't have many advantages in the Nordic startup circles, but at least there's this :-)

Hardly. I lived on UI in America after being laid off of the Evil Empire in Redmond. There I planted the roots for my startup, which I run today.

Added "social welfare programs" which encompasses stuff like social security and unemployment benefits.

Well it seems that this option now has one vote :-)

On a sidenote, it skews the poll quite badly when you add options this late. Nothing against you personally - just something to note.

I'm going to add a comment about that

Unemployment Benefits are actually pretty generous in many parts of the US. http://fileunemployment.org/unemployment-benefits-comparison...

You don't get unemployment if you voluntarily leave your job. edit: or a contractor.

What about health insurance for unemployed?

It's called Medicaid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid

You need to be careful when mixing business ventures with safety net programs. Once you start making any kind of money, you need to get out of medicaid asap -- if the County figures out that you have assets, they will want to "recapture" the benefit value that was provided to you.

Just make sure you know the rules before going this route.