>It took me a while to parse that… then it struck me: right, you don't naturally get paid leave of absence for illness or injury in the US. In Germany, the mini

>It took me a while to parse that… then it struck me: right, you don't naturally get paid leave of absence for illness or injury in the US. In Germany, the minimum by law is 6 weeks at 100% wage, and another 76 weeks at 70% wage (there are some special cases and whatnot, but they don't apply to poorer households.) Additionally, the first 6 weeks may be prolonged by your contract if you're working a job (usually industrial labour, e.g. car manufacturing) where the union has negotiated better terms. Blue collar folk with money tend do have more dangerous hobbies than white collar workers. Motorsports, boxing/mma. When you crash a bike you're wearing a helmet. When someone fouls you in backetball you're not. Catastrophic injuries that leave you unable to do physical work while recovering are very rare in endurance sports until you get in to the more extreme end of the spectrum (e.g. a 5k that's basically an obstacle course in a mud bog) and even then they're somewhat rare. Why someone who works on their feet most of the time and regularly carries heavy things may not want to pound their knees into dust doing a couple marathons a year has nothing to do with healthcare. >You may have an easy job, but if your peer group doesn't, endurance sports may still be frowned upon. This seems to correlate with my unscientific observation but I don't think it's specifically "frowned upon".