[ SECRET POST #1577 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1577 ⌋


Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 044 secrets from Secret Submission Post #225.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 2 - repeats ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Comments

[hermione-vader.livejournal.com]

Well, a lot of middle-class Americans do not leave the country often, if at all. This is especially true for people who don't live near a coast (like me). It's because we're so goddamn big.

[twenty-rooks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've heard (I'm Swedish, but I've seen Americans talking about it), but the secret maker didn't say where they were from. Also, the non-Americans in the fandom would probably see it differently?

Is it because it's expensive or because the international airports are hard to get to? Because one of the most popular countries to visit for us Swedes right now is Thailand, and it's pretty far away! I myself have been to Japan several times, and that's a 15-20 hour journey (since there aren't any direct flights and one always has to transfer).

But yeah, travel within Europe is pretty easy for us, especially within EU. Cheap too, usually. And I think our middle class are generally better off than in the U.S.? Basically, if you've got a job (any job) you can travel abroad. Most people go every or every other year.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not so much 'better off' or not I think, most people where I live have been to either Mexico or Canada [usually both]. But, the fact is to get to places like Europe it *is* expensive for us, and we can't get there overland, so whatever price the airlines want to put on the ticket is what we have to pay...and they can and do charge a lot becuase it takes a lot of fuel to get there. When the only other option would be to go by boat? Yeah. The prices are going to go up, not to mention the other ways the airlines like to nickle and dime customers. It's the same story as far as getting to Asia.

For reference, I think the cheapest I've seen for a ticket to anywhere in Europe is about 800 USD...and that was one of those 'Last minute, someone cancelled!' sale type things.

However, for us getting to Canada and Mexico is pretty cheap and easy, and *yes* we can get there without being charged an arm and a leg at the airport.

[(Anonymous)]

Not only expensive, which it definitely is, but it's really hard for a lot of people to get chunks of time off from work. From what little I know of non-American living, it seems to be more accepted to take more/longer vacation time. Whereas I'm lucky if I get a full week off.

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty much what the other two have said. It's not a matter of the US having a lower standard of living [since that seems to be what you were saying], which the difference isn't as big as most people assume, so much as it is *amazingly* expensive to go overseas, and in the US [and I believe Canada, though I could be wrong about that] we also tend to get less time off, making it harder to make a trip overseas where you'll have to deal with the effects of going 5-8+ hours a head of your timezone, you'd almost have to be heading back home about the time you reajusted to the new timezone/jetlag wore off. Where as if you stay with in the US/only travel between Canada/US/Mexico it's no where near as expensive as flying to a completely different continent.

[I don't know if this would help or not, but look at how expensive it would be for you to visit the US. Pretty expensive, right? It's the same for us.]

I think what the OP is getting at is that it can come off as bragging/showing off their wealth to bring it up in a conversation when the topic about something like that hasn't been proached. [I.E. It can kinda come off like someone talking about having a huge house/uber-fancy car/ect.]

[(Anonymous)]

Funny, because it actually isn't amazingly expensive. Tickets from the US to Europe are often cheaper than in the other direction, Europeans pay more green and airport taxes and they go on longer haul holidays - many Western Europeans regularly holiday in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, North and South America. It's just your idea of what is expensive isn't ours in terms of travel - we are used to paying hight flight, food and hotel costs, you aren't and so don't prioritise holiday expenditure the way we do.

[(Anonymous)]

Depends entirely where you're flying from. The commenter below explains it all a lot better than I can, but to sum it up: A lot of airports *are* difficult to get to, you can't always get to them via mass transit, and even then you have to be flying out of specific hubs to get out of the country. A lot of places within the US it is *much* cheaper to drive to your destination than fly, even if it takes much, much longer - and is actually easier in a lot ways.

The 'longer haul' holidays bit still has the problem of we don't have vacations that are as long. Want to admit it or not, that *is* a factor when your going across as many timezones as we're talking about - because of the adjustment to the new time if nothing else.

Also, where was hotel and food costs mentioned? We do factor those into our vacation plans, just as most of us factor in misc. expenses that we can't predict coming up - unless you think that we don't eat and/or sleep at any point during a vacation.

[regendy.livejournal.com]

Re: getting to airports, it actually is difficult, depending where you live. One of my old roommates lived a good two hours away from the nearest airport, and it only did small regional flights. It was sometimes cheaper for her family to drive her to the neighboring state and spend the night there so she could fly out from the bigger airport there. My city has a decent-sized airport, but I've still had to transfer for most of my (domestic, within the same timezone) flights.

And yeah, like the other three people said, in the US it's mostly a matter of geographical distance. Driving from the house I lived in as a kid in southern Germany, you could take a scenic route through Luxembourg and Belgium and get to Amsterdam in a little under 8 hours... which is about how long it takes to get from my parents' house to my college in a neighboring state. Unless we live near the Canadian or Mexican borders, we need a plane to leave the country. (And even travel within the states is a pain if your destination is too far away to drive but doesn't have mass transit, because then you have to rent a car too. Ugh.)

I'm way jealous of Europeans travel-wise, not gonna lie. You're so much more conveniently located!

[airings.livejournal.com]

..Luxembourg and Belgium and get to Amsterdam in a little under 8 hours...which is about how long it takes to get from my parents' house to my college in a neighboring state

Haha as a European, that is just unfathomable to me. I never realized how big the US actually was until I visited last year. After driving for over five hours, we were still in the same state. Broke my little Dutch brain.

[nota-lone.livejournal.com]

I had the opposite experience. I'm used to living in Texas and Michigan and being able to take a train across multiple countries in a day completely blows my mind (to be fair, I was in Luxembourg, which is particularly small).

[(Anonymous)]

But yeah, travel within Europe is pretty easy for us, especially within EU. Cheap too, usually. And I think our middle class are generally better off than in the U.S.? Basically, if you've got a job (any job) you can travel abroad. Most people go every or every other year.

Huh, I'd say, if you have a job and don't have a family to support or anything. I mean, I can think of many people who can't really afford to traval outside of, well, in my case, France.