I don't want my junk groped at the airport.
I don't want my junk groped at the airport.
I get 10 days of vacation a year. I split it up for 2 work weeks each year 6 months apart. Hard to travel abroad in a week.... Plus if I tried to take anymore time off I'm pretty sure I'd get fired. Basically I'm a slave...
Real REasons wrote:
I don't want my junk groped at the airport.
That's not what you said before.
I don't want some minimum wage TSA agent who is a registered sex offender (over a dozen nationwide) feeling up my 13 year old daughter.
I really do not get either point. The first one has nothing to do with anything on the thread that I can see.
Historically, there's been a significant amount of resentment and/or fear of FOREIGNERS COMING TO LIVE HERE (maybe that will make something I wrote more clear. That's much less likely to happen if you have some familiarity with non-Americans.
I didn't say that travel was necessary for creating a broad world view. I said it was one way to do it.
maccabee wrote:
Uhhh....it costs a lot? I'd love to travel but I don't have that kind of $$
BINGO
US median incomes make travelling expensive. People do not have the money to spend $2-3k for a trip to Europe.
Brits are not as well traveled as other Europeans for the same reason - it takes more time/$/effort to get someplace vs a person living in continental Europe.
Saying Americans don't travel abroad is a statement that has never been true; somebody once said it and it stuck and people continue to repeat it. The fact is, there are counties that practically survive on American tourism. If you have been watching CNN, you would know there were over 1500 American tourist and more than twice that many living and working there that had to be evacuated from Egypt when the violence started.
And to reiterate what has been said several times, there is a lot to see in America.
To those who think there isn't anything unique about the USA. here are a few facts:
The USA is by far the #1 tourist destination in the world.
The USA gets more Visa request than the rest of the world combined. "the rest of the world combined"
There so many forgien students in the US who never return home, that most countries that provide scholarships to study in the U.S. have stipulations that you have to home when you finish.
Btw, I have lived in small villages in the Alsacian area of France, I've lived in Auckland New zealand, I have lived in Doha Qatar or as George Bush use to say "Gutter". I love to travel and appreciate that I have been to some intersting places, but it was practically all on someone else dime. The fact that I have traveled does not make me more intelectual or elite...I was lucky.
I would tell the average American middle class family with 2 weeks of vacation to go to Orlando Fl before I would tell them to go to Paris.
...Paris is actually a great city to visit if you can afford it.
We don't want to be shot at, kidnapped, sliced, diced, drowned, beheaded nor blown up.
Thank 'Bush the Lesser'.
Fortress America!!!!
bump
It's tempting to say the answer is nativism....it's disturbing to see how many Americans really can't even CARE about what goes on outside the U.S. ... but it's also true, obviously, that more Americans are actually living and working abroad than ever before. My two siblings are cases in point.
I traveled overseas extensively in my 20s, wanting to see as much of the world as possible. But that was a different era, back when "cheap" and "safe" could coexist for travelers, and I do mean cheap. Plus I had every reason to believe that as soon as my wanderlust was over, I could launch the career I wanted. I don't think 20somethings have those luxuries anymore.
I have pointed it out to many Europeans that attempt to mock Americans for not having a passport. I do not and have never had a passport. Due to the new laws I can no longer travel to Mexico or the Caribbean Islands without one, which is a shame. With my Enhanced Drivers License I can travel anywhere in the United States and Canada. Two countries that have nearly DOUBLE the geographic size of all of non-russian/eastern eastern Europe, and I can do it for MUCH less expense and time. I can fly to New York for $350. I cant fly to Europe for less than 5 times that.
So I have never seen the Alps...I have been to The U.S. and Canadian Rockies, and the Alaskan Range. I can see tropical paradises in Hawaii or the Florida Keys. The U.S. has rainforests in Washington and the southern Alaska Islands. Vast expanses of desert. It is actually much more geographically diverse than Europe. And not quite as culturally diverse, but much much more than they seem to think. There is a huge difference between the people of southern california, the people of new york, Texans, Cajuns, Pacific Northwesterners....
Two to three weeks paid vacation a year go a long way to explaining this.
A week off at Christmas and a week off vegging during the summer doesn't leave a lot of time for seeing the world...
M.C. Confusing wrote:
I can fly to New York for $350. I cant fly to Europe for less than 5 times that.
According to Travelocity a couple minutes ago, you could fly from NYC to London for less than $300 if you pick the right dates. From the east coast, at least, it probably costs more to fly to Hawaii or Alaska.
I'm not saying you should or should not travel internationally, but your rational as stated doesn't make much sense.
Fishing Instructor wrote:
M.C. Confusing wrote:I can fly to New York for $350. I cant fly to Europe for less than 5 times that.
According to Travelocity a couple minutes ago, you could fly from NYC to London for less than $300 if you pick the right dates. From the east coast, at least, it probably costs more to fly to Hawaii or Alaska.
I'm not saying you should or should not travel internationally, but your rational as stated doesn't make much sense.
Yeah, that's a pretty ignorant statement, considering it's possible to travel to Europe for WAY less than $1750, in fact less than a third of that. AerLingus has pretty good rates, you can go from New York to Dublin and back for less than $500 during their special periods...I've flown from DC to Paris round-trip for $507. Mexico can be done for about $300, and other European airlines often have very affordable specials as well.
I live in NYC and am in Hawaii now, but it would have cost me less to go to Europe (but I've been there quite a few times already, and February's not the best month to be there).
Fishing Instructor wrote:
According to Travelocity a couple minutes ago, you could fly from NYC to London for less than $300 if you pick the right dates. From the east coast, at least, it probably costs more to fly to Hawaii or Alaska.
I'm not saying you should or should not travel internationally, but your rational as stated doesn't make much sense.
If you go in winter to London... yes, it can be cheap. If you go in the summer, it's typically over $1,000. I think his rational makes perfect sense. We're talking about why more Americans don't travel abroad. Most people travel for vacations. Most people vacation in the summer. In the summer, flights to Europe are expensive enough to be a deterrent from traveling there for Americans. What doesn't make sense about that rational?
HRE wrote:
I didn't say that travel was necessary for creating a broad world view. I said it was one way to do it.
what do you mean by "broad world view" and why do you think it is important to have one?
Racehorse wrote:
HRE wrote:I didn't say that travel was necessary for creating a broad world view. I said it was one way to do it.
what do you mean by "broad world view" and why do you think it is important to have one?
Honestly, it's hard to put into words. I know something like that seems like a really cliche phrase, but there's a lot of truth in it. I was lucky enough to start traveling in college, and spent a couple more years abroad after grad school - I moved back to the US last summer, but in all likelihood will move back abroad next year.
For one, you get to experience, directly or indirectly, different foods, cultures, and ways of thought. Never did I imagine growing up that one day I'd be having a debate in Korean on democracy vs. communism with classmates from China who had never been to a western country - it's a lot different than typing a couple sentences that sound good on letsrun.
Personally, I've become a lot more aware, independent, outgoing, and responsible - living abroad in your 20's where you have to fend for yourself, manage your money, and develop your own social network, often with people of much different backgrounds than yourself, kind of necessitates that. You have to manage in places where dryers are unheard of and washing machines are a luxury, trying to get around in a country where barely anyone speaks English and you know none of the native language. You realize that there's a whole world out there you previously only saw in books or on the news, and often it's really nothing like your previous conceptions. You see the good in people, but also the bad, as gypsying, ripping you off, and pickpocketing fall into the social norms in many places. You can also better relate to people from other cultures, and the world seems a lot smaller. You also don't automatically judge people with the stereotypes we tag on their culture, though sometimes there definitely is some truth in them.
Bump