I always hear people say this as a ‘gotcha’ but it doesn’t make any sense.
I have travelled while homeless.
People will be renting an apartment in a developed city, owning a car, going out to pubs/nightclubs, and then telling dirty backpackers, “God must be nice to have the money to travel!”
travel vs sedentism, neither one is necessarily more cheap/expensive than the other
That’s fair, but there’s a wide gulph between transient homeless and wealthy enough to pay all your bills and still travel the world. The overwhelming majority of people in the middle have to work full time to maintain their standard of living, and even the destitute will have responsibilities that prevent them from slinging a pack over their shoulder and riding the rails.
I agree that people should be encouraged to get out more and see more of the world, but that’s like telling people to eat more fresh vegetables and home cooked meals because processed fast food is unhealthy. People who can and do reap the benefits, but not everyone who would, can.
You could chime in that you grew up poor on a farm where your grandma’s garden was your only source of food, and that wouldn’t counter the point that for most people, fresh produce is either unavailable, too expensive, or too time-consuming to be a regular part of their diet. Likewise, most people cannot drop everything and become nomads hitchiking across the lands like fucking David Banner or Jarod the Pretender.
To put it another way, Travel is a luxury enjoyed by the unencumbered, whether by wealth or absence. It is not an option available to everyone.
If you didn’t want to be a bigot, you should have been born rich and traveled more. That’s just science, don’t @ me.
I always hear people say this as a ‘gotcha’ but it doesn’t make any sense.
I have travelled while homeless.
People will be renting an apartment in a developed city, owning a car, going out to pubs/nightclubs, and then telling dirty backpackers, “God must be nice to have the money to travel!”
travel vs sedentism, neither one is necessarily more cheap/expensive than the other
That’s fair, but there’s a wide gulph between transient homeless and wealthy enough to pay all your bills and still travel the world. The overwhelming majority of people in the middle have to work full time to maintain their standard of living, and even the destitute will have responsibilities that prevent them from slinging a pack over their shoulder and riding the rails.
I agree that people should be encouraged to get out more and see more of the world, but that’s like telling people to eat more fresh vegetables and home cooked meals because processed fast food is unhealthy. People who can and do reap the benefits, but not everyone who would, can.
You could chime in that you grew up poor on a farm where your grandma’s garden was your only source of food, and that wouldn’t counter the point that for most people, fresh produce is either unavailable, too expensive, or too time-consuming to be a regular part of their diet. Likewise, most people cannot drop everything and become nomads hitchiking across the lands like fucking David Banner or Jarod the Pretender.
To put it another way, Travel is a luxury enjoyed by the unencumbered, whether by wealth or absence. It is not an option available to everyone.
It’s very similar to the “oh you have time to read books and educate yourself, you must be rich!” discourse. It’s very infantalizing.