I don't agree with much of that. First of all at least 40% of Americans have never held a passport. And the only reason it is that low is because things changed and you needed a passport to travel to Canada or Mexico. My guess it is closer to 80% or more who have never travelled to Europe, Asia, South America etc etc etc. Cheap flights are for retired people or those who are independently wealthy. The vast majority of people who fly for leisure in the US travel during Thanksgiving , Xmas etc when fares are the highest .Dodger wrote:I think it has much more to do with cheap flights, cheap hotels, cheap meals, cheap medical care (if needed), and of course cheap sex.
One of the problems in America is that Globalization has hurt large pockets of the US where people own homes and worked in , steel, coal, timber etc etc and find it hard to pick up and move thousands of miles where there might be better job opportunities . Their homes are unsaleable and thus they have no money to start over.
Programs should have been made by the Government to help people move to where the jobs are , Unfortunately they have not been made available in most cases. Interesting you mentioned Tennessee . More people moved from foreign countries ,to South Carolina , Tennessee , Alabama etc for auto plant jobs than people from say West Virginia home of a dying coal industry.