It’s said that only 20% of Americans have passports. Even fewer bother to use them.
When I talk to my US friends about travel, a lot of them appear wide-eyed and enthusiastic when describing the dozens of Europeans and Australians they meet on the road and are quick to comment on how lazy their fellow Americans can be, never longing to see anything further than their own backyard.
Lazy isn’t a word I’d use though.
It’s unfair to compare Americans to Europeans and Australians. It’s inevitable that the latter group would travel more: Us Europeans have access to a huge list of super cheap airlines that fly in and out of each country more than 50 times a day without having to worry about Visas or vaccinations. Australians come from a large enough country but one that’s situated on its own wayyyy down south so it isn’t any wonder they have the inbuilt curiosity to wonder what’s out there.
And then we return to the United States of America. Why aren’t more Americans curious about the world?
Sidestepping the issue that those who follow the media are flooded every day by how dangerous everything in existence is and how it’s going to somehow kill them, we have to take a close look at the country they live in.
