You're correct, I should have been more precise. 4.5 years lost all at once is what is unacceptable. I recognize work and all of life's "chores" take time, and that every decision I make cuts off an infinitude of other choices. Though most chores have a positive reward for doing them, while prison has very little.
The larger point I intended was that for most people (especially handsomely-paid professionals like software devs) time is a more constrained resource than money.
Lastly, time lost all at once is worse than time loss incrementally, i.e. if I could serve my 4.5 year sentence 40 hours a week, that doesn't sound so bad, or that unfamiliar... ;)
