The real reason most Americans do not have a passport

The statistic that has been cast by the ages is that only 10% of Americans have a valid passport, because the other 90% are narrow-minded ignorant who do not know or care about what's happening outside of the states -United. The most accurate statistics now seem to be about a third of Americans with a valid passport, which of course means only 2/3 are narrow-minded tramps.

It's still embarrassing until you consider that the statistics also include babies, the elderly, the chronically ill, the people in my hometown who say, "I do not really like sun and sand" or "Why would you want? I want to go elsewhere "and many other people that you would not want to stay next to an international flight, so I agree with that.

Do I judge people without a passport? Of course! But I also know that all those who are interested in a passport probably have one and those who probably do not need to represent us abroad. So statistics are not so alarming considering everything.

Of course, I'm funny, I think the real reason why so many Americans do not have passports has a lot to do with the sheer amount of vacations we have and our general culture of "living at work." .. but we are improving. !

As I said, I judge people without a passport. Mostly it's a projection of my own geographic claustrophobia (when science finds out it's a reality, remember you heard it here first) that went crazy yesterday when I had to withdraw my passport from its usual storage place in the glove box of my car (just in case) and send it in an envelope to renew, although it does not expire until June 17.

Why do I have to spend $ 170 to renew my passport completely 4 months before it expires? Because many countries do not allow you to enter with a passport that expires in the next six months, even if you have a return ticket. I know what you think. Why do passports even have an expiration date? Why do passports last only 9.5 years? I do not have answers for that.

I have an answer to the question "Why $ 170? Because it's because it costs $ 110 per passport. A big sum for a piece of paper, but a small price for a ticket for everyone, so I guess it's all perspective. When I consider that I paid more than half of that for a small sticker that allows me to drive my car for another year, it does not look so bad.

Here's the bad part, the other $ 60 for "expedited service" if you want to be able to leave the country anytime in the next 7 weeks. "Treatment from 2 to 3 weeks" does not seem terribly timely, especially because I know of an unfortunate experience at Sydney Airport in Australia that a passport can indeed be replaced within a day. Of course, it was something like an "emergency" situation. I do not expect the effectiveness of the Australian Embassy in the United States. But, it seems that they only need to care for 10 to 33% of the population every 10 years and that their passport can be issued in less than 4 to 6 weeks without requiring additional compensation. put my passport (still valid for 4 months) in an envelope and entrust it to the US postal service. 

I do not see why I can not go online and fill out a form to send me a new passport. I did it with my driver's license and it was ok. As a bonus, I did not have to rush into a CVS to teach a dance class and take a new passport photo that looks like this, so now I have to spend the next 10 years in embarrassment at customs.

Of course, my last picture was of me at the age of 17 and I was abandoned in Australia after a school trip, so I guess it would have needed an update, but I still think I should to be able to do it online. Oh, and I could not find my checkbook and they do not accept credit cards, so I had to ask for a money order ... AN ORDER OF MONEY. It's 2014!

I think, for the most part, it's a fear-based complaint since I do not have a passport for the next 2-3 weeks (fingers crossed are not lost in the mail). But let Passport-Power-That-Be, has much less to do than most other countries, the vast majority of our citizens have no use for their services. Get it!

On a lighter note, they injected me with a very expensive virus, so now I have this yellow fever card to stick on my passport in 2-3 weeks.