“Where have you traveled to?”
Ask any small group of students this question, and you’ll soon have a list of exploits that would shock even the most hardened explorers of the Middle Ages into awestruck submission. With a couple days of planning and a moderately sized financial sacrifice, a large and increasing segment of the population finds itself both willing and able to see every corner of the world.
Especially in the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, American spending on vacations has skyrocketed. A study by Allianz Partners shows that Americans spent $214 billion on summer vacations in 2023, a 110% jump from 2019. This unprecedented rise can be seen in all fields. According to statistics from the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA handles 16,405,000 flights per year, carrying nearly 3 million passengers in and out of U.S. airports every single day. As of 2023, aviation accounted for 5.2% of America’s total economic spending, or GDP.
But even as fortunes are spent to spend time elsewhere, this nation is rotting away. From the Rust Belt to the north to the backcountry of the south, the cities on the coasts to the “flyover states” in the interior, everything is falling apart — and falling together.
Depression rates are soaring. Birth rates have plummeted. Data from the Federal Communications Commission shows that over 560,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses in the past 30 years. The American Enterprise Institute reports that 17% of Americans have zero close friends. That number was 12% just three years ago.
I could go on and on and on, but this country can’t.
From the suburbs and classrooms of Ladue, everything seems like a fever dream. This student body is largely detached from the pain that millions of Americans are going through as this nation burns down around them. Many are convinced that people like us will never be able to make a difference, or worse, that voting alone can magically “save democracy” or “drain the swamp.”
It is this same detachment that drives more and more people to travel abroad. Going on vacation, Americans are increasingly chasing hope and joy — things millions long to feel at home but are unwilling to fight for.
There’s nothing bad about seeing new places. There’s nothing bad about seeing new things. But the way most Americans see the world — full of problems to be avoided and not fixed — is a symptom of a disease that threatens to destroy everything.
When traveling somewhere incredible, take it all in. Think of the beauty all around — the beauty that could exist anywhere, if only we would work for it.
