What I don’t get is not having investments/cash to hold you over for a year or even 2. Whitecollar jobs pay well and I’d expect most people to have earned quite a bit in the dot com frenzy.
You might make a lot of money, but if you're a young adult, you might still need to buy a car, a house, get kids, etc. All of which cost a lot of money, to a point where you might not be able to save much.
Again, we were very fortunate to come though it as well as we did. Many close friends had it much worse.
There's bound to be a variety of financial and career situations out there. To me, it's difficult to imagine anyone getting canned and thinking 'meh, no biggie'.
I think there’s a subjective component where it does feel like a big deal no matter what savings you have. But objectively if you can cover expenses for a year then it really is ‘meh, no biggie’ .