Judge the world yet only 20% Americans have been out of USA?

How can america judge the world, be a superpower and dictate other counties in what they believe is right when only 20% of American have a passport, surely to see the world and open youre eyes to what is really going on you would need to see things with youre own eyes, Yet I find it hard to believe that only 20% of America has even been out of the country?
This I find quiet shocking considering the strong views Americans have on how the world should behave?
Surely an educated people is a well travelled and knowladged people. Not the Americans?

reply to post by blaenau2000


I was waiting for somebody to bring this up. Some Americans don't even know my country, New Zealand exists.
I find it sad that the government is so caught up in itself, it doesn't focus on getting other countries known. It seems that when they go to a country, they take 50,000 armed men with them as well. I don't mind the American people, but the government is blindly leading there people down a very dark path.

Cheers
Brady

I've always found this stat a bit shocking too.

To be fair though North America is a pretty damn big place, and I also can't find any data about passport ownership of other countries so I don't know what I'm comparing it to.

If you live in mainland Europe it's perfectly feasible to visit another country in a car for a day it's not so easy in the U.S

Well I have been through Canada while I was a young kid on my way to Alaska to my family. It is strange to think upon. Maybe with the internet we don't need to travel.

reply to post by GetRadNZ


The one's that do, insist that it is in a different place every week.

Shocking: New Zealand & Australia are out of their place on the map

I love it. Walk across the border from Fance to Germany and you're worldly and traveled.

Rail some 3,000 miles across the United States and you're a xenophobic bigot.




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Its true, I'm afraid. Yes, Northern America is a big place, but its still one country. You have to go out there to experience everything before you blatantly slander every other nation.

One of my friends was just recently in North Carolina doing a speech to a college there, and do you know what the first thing he was asked? Do Africans have feet? This is a COLLEGE.

Don't get me wrong, I have a few American friends, and they're great people that I love dearly, but even they say that Americans are far too self-absorbed. Just goes to show tho, maybe I should visit the states before I judge.

I'm not very well travelled myself, we used to go for the family holiday each year in Spain, or one of the Balearic's when we were younger, but then started going down south for holidays because of money and that. Apart from that I've been to Poland for my uncle's wedding and Ibiza a few times. So I suppose that's sort of comparable to what the American's are like, I haven't left the continent.

As for the passport situation, I don't know anyone who doesn't have a passport. I know a few people use their passport as ID

Well consider this, American Citizens don't need a passport to travel to Canada and Mexico, so unless american citizens are going abroad you really dont need a passport. This american has traveled to canada, Mexico, Belize, UK, France,Spain,Netherlands,Denmark,Germany and Italy. Europes close proximity with the "old world" gives you more opportunity to travel then us in america. Plan and simple.

I believe your question was

"How can america judge the world, be a superpower and dictate other counties in what they believe is right when only 20% has ever been out of the country?"

Which I retort with my own question.

"How could the British Empire judge the world, be a superpower and dictate other countries policies during the 18th century?"

reply to post by PWDrifter


Well to be fair us British certainly did a fair bit of travelling during our empire building, it's just that we tended to kill everyone when we arrived

reply to post by PWDrifter


No we need passports now. My friend had to get one in order to live in Canada.
Trust me!

Been on every continent except antarctica (planning to go next year) so i guess that makes me a fricken genius

Originally posted by davespanners
I've always found this stat a bit shocking too.

To be fair though North America is a pretty damn big place, and I also can't find any data about passport ownership of other countries so I don't know what I'm comparing it to.

If you live in mainland Europe it's perfectly feasible to visit another country in a car for a day it's not so easy in the U.S

About 80% of the Uk population have passports, so quite a large increase.

second

reply to post by jrmcleod


That might be true but what do they do with them?

Spending a week every year drinking Beer and having sex with anything with a pulse in the Costa Del Sol hardly qualifies someone as worldly wise.
The last time I went to Spain it was more like travelling to Derbyshire then a foreign country.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


yea your right. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative went into effect on June 1st, 2009.

reply to post by PWDrifter


Yep! Sucks!
I can't sneak up to Canada through the back way. The back is always so fun.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


All you have to do is go to Sumas, Washingon (north of Seattle) and walk across the border to Abbotsford,BC. 3 minute walk and your there

Only 20% of Americans (from the USA, I'm guessing you mean) have been out of the country? That does seem like a shockingly low figure. If it's based on passport data, I'd be curious to see what year that's from, because it is only recently that we've needed a passport to go to Mexico or Canada. My guess is that this figure is an underestimate, though by how much I really have no idea. At any rate, considering the expense of travel and the state of the economy, maybe it's not so surprising.

I have to agree with the other posters who pointed out some of the factors behind the relative insularity of the population. The size of the country does have quite a lot to do with it, though I think others would have to live here to see if this judgment from the outside is as extreme as you're imagining. I have to say, those examples mentioned by others in the thread (e.g., people not even knowing that New Zealand exists, and someone asking about whether a group of people have feet) completely floored me! I have to believe those are really, really extreme examples...especially that second one.

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
I love it. Walk across the border from Fance to Germany and you're worldly and traveled.
Rail some 3,000 miles across the United States and you're a xenophobic bigot.

I know. Pretty pathetic, isn't it? :shk: Folks who post this stuff are worse than those they bash.
They judge America without having been here.
It's exactly what they accuse Americans of doing with Europe, etc.

Hey guys .. America is HUGE compared to the little countries over there. And being here, it takes a bunch of $$$ for us to pay for plane tickets, hotels with heavy socialist taxes, food with heavy socialist taxes, etc etc. to get out N. America. Most people have bills to pay and can't afford $6,000 for a week vacation for two in Germany (or whereever). Americans don't have the luxery of traveling CHEAP around Europe like the Euros do.

It's rather snotty to say that because you all can walk across the border and we can't, that somehow that makes us less smart or less understanding of the world. It's a pretty myopic attitude flowing from the eurocentric folks.

Ya' don't have to actually travel to a country to empathize or to learn about it.
Have you yahooooos ever been to South America?
No? So how can you judge what happens in Venezuela without ever having visited there?
According to your logic .. you can't.

Oh .. not that it's any of your business ... I've traveled to - Canada, France, Germany, Leitchtenstein, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Boliva, Venezuela, and I lived in Japan for three years. But that doesn't mean I understand them any better than people who have never traveled there. Japan maybe .. cuz' I actually lived there for three years. But the rest? Nope!

I have a 'wish' list - Egypt, Morocco, Antarctica .. etc. But won't be able to go, ever, due to health reasons now. Does that mean that I instantly can't have an opinon - based on fact - about terrorist attacks in Egypt? Of course not!!!

OY! :shk:

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
I love it. Walk across the border from Fance to Germany and you're worldly and traveled.

Rail some 3,000 miles across the United States and you're a xenophobic bigot.

 

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I really think this is missing the point. Unless you have had the experience of being in a different culture, one still lives on one's own cultural bubble.