MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
Now, just think about it: Not all Americans can find the USA on the map. Meaning that: Some Americans can't find the USA on the map.
If you think about it, 6% of such a large group of people is actually a lot. Therefore, I think it's not wrong to say that many Americans can't find the USA on the map.
It is my opinion that Americans can't find America on maps because they suffer irreparable brain damage from being abducted by aliens, who perform cruel science experiments on their victims.
We in America must be particularly concerned about this issue, as aliens are more interested in American humans than in others. Research has shown that we, as Americans, are more chemically similar to our abductors than other humans because of the chemicals we ingest on a daily basis.
To eradicate this problem, we must raise awareness of the potential for alien abduction -- and the dangers of walking alone at night in heavily wooded areas. We must also change our diets to consist only of products high in melamine, which is extremely poison to other known life forms.
Anyway, I still think my answer was more coherent than hers. Dammit, I should compete in Miss Teen USA! Do you think the fact that I'm not a teenager will hurt my chances?
Lots of people can't read maps. Lots of people have terrible visual memories. I DON'T think that 6% of the population is that big of a number, considering 6% of the population is (roughly) under the age of FOUR, and 6% of the population is over the age of 68.
Furthermore, 30 million Americans over the age of 16 have "below basic" literary skills. This means that over 10% of Americans have only the simplest skills. 11 million Americans couldn't even complete the test (7 million were native english speakers and 4 million did not speak english). 15 percent of NAAL survey participants didn't graduate from high school (which constituted 55% of the survey participants rated "Below Basic").
In other words, I'm SURPRISED that 6% of Americans can identify the US on a map, considering that 10% can barely read, and 15% didn't even get a basic level of education.
I think this was a trick question. I mean, of course it depends on the map. For instance, you hand me a map of the Smithsonian and tell me to find a USA on it, and I'm gonna have a hard time.
So let's to party, the Miss USA Teen, South Carolina.
20% of Americans have passports. A lot of people just don't care about anything beyond what's right in front of their faces... especially if it's a Big Mac.
My first exposure to this was in glancing at a transcript somewhere last week. I thought someone was making fun of the way George W. Bush speaks, honestly.
20% of Americans have passports. A lot of people just don't care about anything beyond what's right in front of their faces...
To be fair, miss lynnster, until recently passports weren't required to travel to Mexico or Canada, our two closest neighbors and trading partners. When traveling to another country (besides Mexico and Canada) requires thousands of dollars and an 8-16 hour plane flight, I think it's understandable that many US Americans can't afford to travel anywhere requiring a passport.
I'm not defending our nation's ignorance and self-centeredness, I'm trying to point out the root causes - poverty and the lack of educational support structures.
finding stuff on maps? that's what GPS or Google Maps are for!
30% of any sizable population couldn't find their own ass with a map
than thank God Americans are getting fatter, they'll find their incresingly big asses much faster!
I think it's understandable that many US Americans can't afford to travel anywhere requiring a passport.
millions of tourists from all over the world travel pretty much everywhere, a lot. I doubt they're all rich. I'm not.
then it's either that the US is much poorer than everybody thinks, or that Americans simply choose to spend their money for things other than travels abroad (where abroad = not Mexico or Canada)
I have a passport and have never used it (wasn't needed when I ventured into Canada). Less vacation time, and I feel like I can't afford it, even if it's true I could go further into credit card debt to finance a trip abroad. Speaking as an American.
Though I can find my own ass without a map, I need a large bucket to carry a tune. Speaking as just me.
matteo, don't forget that Europe is physically smaller than the US. France, your second largest country, is roughly the size of Texas (it's actually a bit smaller). So traveling from one European country to another is like going from one US state to another -- faster, in fact, once you move away from the relatively compact East Coast.
Also, most Americans get less time off than the average European, and most of it comes in the form of three-day weekends based around Federal holidays. That doesn't make for much opportunity to leave the country. I imagine most Americans who can afford to travel take just one or two such trips in their lifetime.
thanks for the interesting discussion. I particularly like the point about very little vacation time. Lots of Irish friends of mine who got plum jobs in the USA complained bitterly about the long hours/short vacations culture.
U.S. Americans don't need to go to Yerrup because we has Busch Gardens: The Old Country® not far away, and anyway the Olive Garden® has better food than over there.
In Europe, it is much cheaper to travel all over Europe than it generally is for Americans to travel even between states. I could fly from England to most places in Europe for $50 (or even less). I have met lots of English people who have travelled all over Europe, but when you look at how many have travelled the kinds of distances that Americans would have to travel to get anywhere other than Mexico and Canada and the numbers drop. Once you add in the fact that in the UK, the minimum vacation time is 20 days (excluding public holidays) and most of Europe gets more, and you can probably see why Americans don't have as much opportunity travel as much out of the Americas.
Plus the US has some of the biggest tourist attractions in the world on its doorstep. Florida, California, Las Vegas, New York etc. This plus a weak dollar, going through customs etc makes staying at home preferable.
but when you look at how many have travelled the kinds of distances that Americans would have to travel to get anywhere other than Mexico and Canada and the numbers drop.
I've always wondered if this is true. For a comparable travel distance and (depending on the country) cultural/economic tourist draw, we can ask if a higher percentage of Europeans have traveled to South America than thepercentage of Americans travel who have traveled to Africa.
Those travel distances compare, but tourist draw skews that comparison right out of the water. Folks all over would rather want to party in Rio than die in Freetown.
Plus, Germans dig Latin America like nothing else. Maybe they just want to visit old uncle Eichmann.
Yeah, see... but I think travel being super expensive is a bit of a myth. Sure it CAN be expensive if you make those choices, but in my experience it doesn't HAVE to cost thousands to travel outside of the U.S. You can still explore the world for cheap. I flew to London for $159 round trip once, less than it cost me to fly to Oklahoma. First four times I went to Europe, I never paid more than $350 for my RT flights. I was a poor student so I just always was on the lookout for airfare deals. My friends and I flew air courier to Bangkok once and then really lived on nothing when we were there because it's such a cheap region.
Now I fly for free with my credit card miles. I rack them up by charging a lot of stuff and then paying off my credit card every month. I'm still far from rich, but I'm too addicted to travel to let that stop me.
I refuse to believe it because, if true, it would strongly indicate that the most awesome country in the history of everything, the one with the most awesome system ever devised in human history, is in fact less awesome than the go-USA rhetoric says; hence, it's impossible.
Euroweenies must inherently be lamer than their Imperial masters. it wouldn't makes sense if the American middle class (ie, the majority) would actually be poorer than their welfare-state-loving, unionized, suffocated-by-Islam European counterparts.
let's not bash America here; the US middle class, if anything, must be richer than any other country's.
it then leaves the "less vacation time" argument open. which is, frankly, another can of worms.
So traveling from one European country to another is like going from one US state to another
eh, I'm not the one who's geography-challenged here. I've driven around Texas a few times. I've even occasionally looked at, like, a map of the world.
I'm not talking of intra-Europe travelling obviously, I'm talking about Europeans (or Asians) who travel to another continents -- there's a shitload of them.
so your point doesn't really stand. the USA is all huge and shit, but Japan is totally far away from everything and the Japanese still travel A LOT to faraway places. Americans, not so much.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
