[run4yourlives]

Canadians travel, so you can't excuse the distance.

I think the problem is (I say this as a Canadian) that the US has a very insular streak to it's fabric that is manifested in ways such as this. This same streak that caused the US to join both world wars when they were half over.

My guess is that it stems from the individual nature of the founders, along with the split from England. This isn't as strong in Canada and Australia because those countries remained extensions of the Empire and thus were automatically and continuously connected to the larger world.

The US spent a better part of the 1800's focusing exclusively on North America.

[evgen]

Another alternative hypothesis for you to consider: there is already so much beauty, novelty, and interesting diversity in the US that it takes a slightly bigger push to get past this local maxima. No offense, but if you chopped out and stitched together all of the interesting bits of Canada you would have a land mass that was about the size of California and with a similar population; in the US we have 49 other states to tool around in as well that present a much greater diversity in terms of environment and inhabitants. We get all that without needing to use a passport, exchange currency, or try to learn to speak like a tourist in another language. It is not the same thing as real international travel, but it is a close-enough approximation for some people that it serves as a reasonable substitute.

[run4yourlives]

there is already so much beauty, novelty, and interesting diversity in the US that it takes a slightly bigger push to get past this local maxima

That statement though is illustrative of my point, though. Canadians and/or Australians will either view their country as boring or too large, and so they head overseas. Americans don't.

I don't think this speaks so much to the actual fact than it does to the way one looks at the situation.

[jerf]

Another aspect is that I don't have to travel to the other side of the world to learn about other cultures, necessarily; I just start talking to my neighbors or coworkers. Is it the same? No, but it's not worthless and you can get up close and fairly personal. I won't learn enough to blend in with that culture by any means but that takes months anyhow.