I mean no disrespect in saying this, but i genuinely think Americans don't like to leave their comfort zone too often and it results in a lot of subjective bias.
I read something like 40% of Americans have never left their country, and about 10% have never left their own state. That means a great deal of them have never experienced a temperature outside of their own.
I think you may be intuitively underestimating the size of the US. I live in Arkansas, which is a fairly mid-sized state. Driving across it at highway speed (70mph/115kph) E/W or N/S takes about four hours. It’s slightly larger than England in area.
Consider someone who lives in Austin, TX. They could drive four hours in any direction and still be in Texas. The US as a whole is approximately the size of all of Europe.
Given that kind of scale, it seems illogical to say that many Americans have “never experienced a temperature outside of their own” merely because we tend to not travel internationally as often as others.
As for comfort zones - I think that’s something of a funny thing. I’ve been to Montreal a couple of times, and honestly felt more at ease there than when visiting New York City, Los Angeles, or Hawaii. There is a huge amount of diversity in terms of culture within the United States.
The other big factor is expense. My wife and I plan to visit Scotland and Italy at some point. We estimated that a week in Scotland for the two of us would cost about $7,000 - $5,000 of which is airfare alone! Consider that the median household income in the US is about $60,000 ($50,000 after federal income taxes). That week in Scotland is approximately the equivalent of two months’ income for a median household! In comparison, a round-trip flight from Heathrow to Istanbul is $330. It’s much, much cheaper for Europeans to travel internationally.
On the similar line: Americans are often said to be unknowing since they mix up European cities / countries and can’t point them out on a map. But the reverse is totally true as well. Ask Europeans where Arkansas is (or how it is pronounced;) and few will know the answer. This mostly boils down to what you learn in school and how much ‘local’ news you are exposed to. I had plenty of European geography in school and very very little US geography. Of course I’m not talking about US/European millennials as they seem to know nothing about geography at all ;-)
never experienced a temperature outside of their own
What does that even mean? You can experience temperatures ranging from 0°F to 100°F within six months in New York City. Why would you need to travel to experience different temperatures?
Comments
I mean no disrespect in saying this, but i genuinely think Americans don't like to leave their comfort zone too often and it results in a lot of subjective bias.
I read something like 40% of Americans have never left their country, and about 10% have never left their own state. That means a great deal of them have never experienced a temperature outside of their own.
No disrespect taken!
I think you may be intuitively underestimating the size of the US. I live in Arkansas, which is a fairly mid-sized state. Driving across it at highway speed (70mph/115kph) E/W or N/S takes about four hours. It’s slightly larger than England in area.
Consider someone who lives in Austin, TX. They could drive four hours in any direction and still be in Texas. The US as a whole is approximately the size of all of Europe.
Given that kind of scale, it seems illogical to say that many Americans have “never experienced a temperature outside of their own” merely because we tend to not travel internationally as often as others.
As for comfort zones - I think that’s something of a funny thing. I’ve been to Montreal a couple of times, and honestly felt more at ease there than when visiting New York City, Los Angeles, or Hawaii. There is a huge amount of diversity in terms of culture within the United States.
The other big factor is expense. My wife and I plan to visit Scotland and Italy at some point. We estimated that a week in Scotland for the two of us would cost about $7,000 - $5,000 of which is airfare alone! Consider that the median household income in the US is about $60,000 ($50,000 after federal income taxes). That week in Scotland is approximately the equivalent of two months’ income for a median household! In comparison, a round-trip flight from Heathrow to Istanbul is $330. It’s much, much cheaper for Europeans to travel internationally.
On the similar line: Americans are often said to be unknowing since they mix up European cities / countries and can’t point them out on a map. But the reverse is totally true as well. Ask Europeans where Arkansas is (or how it is pronounced;) and few will know the answer. This mostly boils down to what you learn in school and how much ‘local’ news you are exposed to. I had plenty of European geography in school and very very little US geography. Of course I’m not talking about US/European millennials as they seem to know nothing about geography at all ;-)
What does that even mean? You can experience temperatures ranging from 0°F to 100°F within six months in New York City. Why would you need to travel to experience different temperatures?