The Off Topic Topic

[alfred russel]

Yeah, I did lot of travelling in my younger years with only a back back.

edit: come to think of it Mrs. CC and I had a bit of a fight over whether we should travel with luggage on our first trip together, I was still of the view that a backpack was fine.

Some trips I still travel with just a backpack.

We never need to grow up.

[crazy canuck]

Some trips I still travel with just a backpack.

We never need to grow up.

I still get the urge to grab the old pack and just go on a walk about for a while.

[grumbler]

Egypt and Tunisia are/were also very popular vacation destinations with plenty of club hotels.

Mexico and the Caribbean countries are/were also very popular vacation destinations with plenty of club hotels.

[Valmy]

Not quite comparable though. Europe is far far more diverse.

20 years ago yeah...it is homogenizing quickly. There are more languages spoken, but if you put that aside...Manhattan, West Texas, Southern Cali, and Nome, Alaska are quite diverse too.

You may be surprised at how many Europeans have left Europe though. Turkey is pretty popular.

More than 60%? Also, you can visit Turkey without leaving Europe.

Yes...let's just put a language barrier aside...

[Syt]

Not quite comparable though. Europe is far far more diverse.

20 years ago yeah...it is homogenizing quickly. There are more languages spoken, but if you put that aside...Manhattan, West Texas, Southern Cali, and Nome, Alaska are quite diverse too.

You may be surprised at how many Europeans have left Europe though. Turkey is pretty popular.

More than 60%? Also, you can visit Turkey without leaving Europe.

Yes...let's just put a language barrier aside...

Why? A lot of hotels will have German/English language staff. I just checked - I can book 2 weeks all inclusive (including flight) in summer in a 4* hotel for around EUR 600.

[Razgovory]

Only found it interesting and I think it has less to do with America being a large country and more with Americans having very little vacation time and many living paycheck to paycheck.

Also found statistics that about a third of Germans have their main vacation in Germany each year and about 15-20% are too poor for vacations.

Apparently about a third of EU citizens never left their home country. Cannot access the source for that though.

I think poverty is a big part of it.  I imagine that a significant number of people who have left the country live within 200 miles of the Canadian or Mexican border.

[derspiess]

Seemed like most people I knew growing up in West Virginia had only been as far as Ohio or North Carolina. If you were middle class you vacationed at Myrtle Beach, SC and that was considered a big deal. Economics played into that bigly.

But a fair number of Americans with the means to travel abroad just have zero desire to do so. My brother and his wife are like that and it drives me crazy. Would do both of them a lot of good.

[PDH]

My college dorm mate from decades ago was born in South Dakota, moved to Wyoming as a kid.  In the following decades he has been to Montana, Utah, Colorado, and once flew to Florida for Disney World.

That is it as far as I know.  He makes enough money, he is university educated, he loves talking about art, buildings, wildlife...he is just a stick in the mud.

[alfred russel]

I like traveling, but I see no reason to encourage people to travel. Mass tourism is a plague.

Aside from that, with modern media and the internet, it is less important than ever to travel in order to get new perspectives.

[Iormlund]

Not quite comparable though. Europe is far far more diverse.

20 years ago yeah...it is homogenizing quickly. There are more languages spoken, but if you put that aside...Manhattan, West Texas, Southern Cali, and Nome, Alaska are quite diverse too.

Speaking as someone who's lived in other European countries,  the language barrier is huge.

As for the rest, Northerners tend to be on the dull side (while sober), southerners boisterous (always) and Easterners less progressive, but that's pretty much it.

[mongers]

I like traveling, but I see no reason to encourage people to travel. Mass tourism is a plague.

Aside from that, with modern media and the internet, it is less important than ever to travel in order to get new perspectives.

I see what you did there. 

[Syt]

[Zanza]

On the other hand, 75% of Median income, I.e. where you drop below middle class, is about 24k USD according to this, which is roughly what the median is in the big group of European countries that sits above the trend.

It is an interesting consideration whether being slightly below middle class in America might be better than being middle class in most of Europe.

[Oexmelin]

On the other hand, 75% of Median income, I.e. where you drop below middle class, is about 24k USD according to this, which is roughly what the median is in the big group of European countries that sits above the trend.

It is an interesting consideration whether being slightly below middle class in America might be better than being middle class in most of Europe.

A lot in the answer to that question will depend on things like health insurance, cost of education or daycare.

[Josquius]

On the other hand, 75% of Median income, I.e. where you drop below middle class, is about 24k USD according to this, which is roughly what the median is in the big group of European countries that sits above the trend.

It is an interesting consideration whether being slightly below middle class in America might be better than being middle class in most of Europe.

Earn 30k in the UK and you can have a pretty decent life. That's a good solid working class salary.
Earn 30k in Switzerland and you're on sub minimum wage struggling to survive poverty wages.
Even between cities in the UK there's a huge difference let alone countries.