I really do think that the primary reason so few U.S. citizens have passports is the distance and cost. We can visit Mexico, Canada and much of the Carribbean without a passport.

And since the U.S. is very large and very diverse geographically, I'd think that a lot of people find it easier to spend year after year inside the U.S.

How many other countries have locations as different as Hawaii, Alaska, the Grand Canyon and South-West deserts, tall steep mountains like the Rockies and the Sierra-Nevadas, lower rolling mountains like the Appalachians, warm and cold oceans, the 5 great lakes, the Everglades and the Florida Keys, the Great Plains and the Badlands, the Northwest rain forests with sequoias and redwoods, & the tropical rain forests of Puerto Rico. Not to mention world-class cities such as San Fran, Chicago, Washington, New Orleans, Boston, Miami, etc.

And where to so many Europeans go when they visit the U.S.? My hometown, Orlando and Walt Disney World. 12 million Europeans visited us last year. In 2000, it was nearly 15 million.

Sure, our school kids may not know that much about world geography, but that's because we don't pay out teachers enough, there's too many kids in every class and the government puts education at a low priority year after bleedin' year.