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Mr. Snobbish & Self-Important (the OP) has gotten plenty of on-the-nose, straight forward answers. He still hasn't responded to his own thread yet, though. He must be ashamed.
I'm am fairly well-traveled but am now done with it. Over my travails, I've experienced a lot of negative and challenging events. The poor standards of other countries, the rudeness against American citizens, the horrid cattle-car service of the airlines all makes me grateful that I can always come back home to high quality, high standards, pure comfort, peace, and pretty much anything one would ever want as far as diversity in cuisine, environment, recreation, intellectual and enriching activities right here at home. When you're an American citizen, who needs to travel? And why bother? We're already in paradise.
In the immortal words of Cole Porter, "See America first."
It would take more than a lifetime to see every wonder in the U.S.
If you don't have some kind of special interest in a particular part of Europe, there's no real reason to go.
I'll bet the majority of Europeans never leave Europe, for the same reason.
I recently returned from a 6 week adventure travel trip to Laos and Cambodia. I traveled by bus, boat and motorcycle. It was the experience of a lifetime. I was very struck by how few Americans I encountered - practically none! The tourists/travelers were overwhelmingly Euros, Aussies, Kiwis and Canadians. These were not wealthy people, just regular working folks with the curiosity and will to see the world, eat new food and push outside their comfort zone. Americans, it seems, are interested mostly in inclusive resorts and Disneyland.
Why is this? Please don't respond that you've personally been where ever. That may well be. But I'm speaking of the extreme scarcity of Americans getting out and seeing something different and exotic. It's undeniable. What's wrong with us? Fear? Lack of education? Lack of curiosity? Spending money on fancy cars, houses, whatever, and that's it?
A lot of it has to do with the limited time off Americans get from work than other countries. But I'm an American and I have been all over the world and I generally encounter many Americans … so I think this is different for everyone.
I recently returned from a 6 week adventure travel trip to Laos and Cambodia. I traveled by bus, boat and motorcycle. It was the experience of a lifetime. I was very struck by how few Americans I encountered - practically none! The tourists/travelers were overwhelmingly Euros, Aussies, Kiwis and Canadians. These were not wealthy people, just regular working folks with the curiosity and will to see the world, eat new food and push outside their comfort zone. Americans, it seems, are interested mostly in inclusive resorts and Disneyland.
Why is this? Please don't respond that you've personally been where ever. That may well be. But I'm speaking of the extreme scarcity of Americans getting out and seeing something different and exotic. It's undeniable. What's wrong with us? Fear? Lack of education? Lack of curiosity? Spending money on fancy cars, houses, whatever, and that's it?
Why does anything have to be wrong? They have other places or things they want to spend their money on. Why does it bother you if anyone chooses to spend money on a car, or something other than a trip to a poor jungle nation? Your post is a question framed negatively in shaming language. No issue with asking the question without the condescension. Enjoy your travels, let others enjoy theirs.
America still has a very significant population of rural dwellers who either have an active farm or small holding or grew up in that environment. Or, theres a big population of individuals who have a small business running on a shoestring profit, or grew up trying to help their parents keep the family shop/restaurant/ dry cleaner, etc afloat. In both scenarios travel is very difficult. If you have livestock, who takes care of them? Who mends your fence, brings in your harvest when you are gone for 6weeks? What do you do if you and the wife want to take off and you are both working shifts at the business? Just close up? What happens if you can't afford that?
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