Originally Posted by chuckd
About a quarter people having passports sounds about right. Most of the people I know don't leave the country and don't care to. I do however think it's unfair to give a
to such people. Going from state to state here is analogous to going from country to country in europe or asia in terms of distance.
I have no idea, other than some yahooing/ googling to find exact figures however.
As an American you currently don't need a passport to travel a massive area of territory. Of course this is changing soon. You can currently travel all of the US, Canada, Mexico, much of the Caribbean and many islands in the Pacific. This is equal in area to all of Europe and North Africa. In Europe as chuckd pointed out our states are equal in size to many countries. A while back I was talking to a girl from Uzbekistan and she was amazed that we didn't need an identity card to travel from state to state.
I actually had a Danish guy tell me that it was reasonable that Americans only speak English. If you live in Indiana and needed a different language to speak to people in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky you would learn them or you would learn a common language. If you live in Germany and want to visit your neighbors you can learn French, Dutch, Danish, Flemmish, Polish and Czech or you can learn English.
I have been to about 50-60 countries and have found that if you speak English and carry US Dollars you can find someone who will speak your language and take your money. If you speak Polish and carry zlotys you will have a far more difficult time. I know it really irked the Brits I traveled with that they had to convert to $ for traveling in Africa.
Personally I think the concept of 75 million Americans set loose on the world is a pretty scary concept.