Most Americans Don't Have Passports

In my travels overseas, I have often met people (usually Europeans) who were critical of most Americans for not having passports (in contrast to most Europeans). As much as I enjoy travel, I have always defended the average American and felt like it was not a fair criticism. I've always said the more relevant comparison is comparing how many Americans have passports to how many Europeans have ever been outside of Europe.

Amar Bakshi seems to agree with me and suggests several reasons other than being self-absorbed for why most Americans don't have passports:

1) America is huge. You can ski and surf in one state alone.
2) International travel is relatively expensive for us. We generally have to fly across one of two oceans to get off our soil.
3) Americans have less vacation time. We have on average two weeks of vacation a year versus a month in England. So with longer flight times, precious vacation time can get lost in transit.
4) There’s less desire to emigrate from the U.S. than other nations so perhaps less interest in checking out other places to live.
5) Passports haven’t always been necessary for travel to the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada. Now they are, and we’re seeing a rise in requests for passports. In fact, the surge in applications was more than expected, causing long delays in issuing passports.
6) Citizens of small European countries -- the size of, say, Maryland -- have long needed passports to travel across their borders. We don't need passports to travel between U.S. states.

Read the whole thing.

While I find it very understandable that most Americans don't have passports, I'd encourage anyone and everyone to travel as much as possible, including some travel outside the US. Compared to any other educational experience I've ever had (I've studied engineering, business, am currently working on my PhD in economics, and starting law school this fall), travel is BY FAR the deepest and most meaningful education I have ever received. I think Tyler Cowen agrees. I would have never decided to pursue a PhD in economics had it not been for my travels in developing nations.

There is indeed so much to see in the US, but the rest of the world has so much to offer as well. Get out and see as much of the world as you possibly can. It truly is an amazing place.

Not only is travel educational, but it's tremendous fun too!