• khepri@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    A passport is a really good thing to have, and lasts much longer than a Real ID state license. It ends up costing like $13/yr and it opens up the whole world to you. It blows my mind that on;y 50% of US citizens ever bother getting one.

    • PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      My real ID is 8 years versus my passport’s 10. And cheaper, less hassle to renew, and more convenient to carry. But I do have both.

      My state also hasn’t offered non-real IDs in several years.

    • Pat_Riot@lemmy.today
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      23 hours ago

      Man, some of us are annoyed every time we have to drive into town to shop for groceries or go to work. I’m surrounded by nature at home. I don’t want to travel. You’d have to B. A. Baracas me to get me on an airplane or boat. I neither need nor want a passport.

      • khepri@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        hahaha now there’s something I haven’t thought about in a minute. I honestly hate airports, airplanes, the TSA, and flying myself. But I do love seeing places and people and experiencing things that I never would have otherwise, whether that’s in my home town, across the state, or across the world, count me in :)

    • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      It costs 165 bucks per person or almost $700 for a family of 4. Then they need $3000-$5000 to travel round trip once to a destination in Europe.

    • OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Well over half of us live paycheck to paycheck and traveling is exorbitantly expensive. Especially international travel.

      It sucks being broke.

      • DempstersBox@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        Travel can be done cheap. Don’t go to the exorbitantly expensive shitty fake ass resort where you get food poisoning.

        Go be real, in the real world.

      • innermachine@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Ding ding ding- the commenter your replying to must not be poor to think buying something you cannot use is a good idea 😂😭

      • khepri@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        For some people in some cases, sure. Myself, I traveled in South America for 3 months last year and overall I saved money vs. expenses in the US, even with airfare included. Also, there’s probably 100 million Americans that live within a single tank of gas of getting to Mexico or Canada. There are plenty of lower-income Americans, Brits, Aussies, and Germans (to name the big groups) who manage to travel extensively for long periods at very low expense. I’ve met many of them, and they could make “thousands of dollars” (let’s say you’re talking about $3,000) last a good three months in many parts of the world. Look for deals, be willing to not get exactly what you want, and be patient, and travel can be (and had been for me) cheaper overall than paying US prices for housing food etc.

        • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          What about if you live in the real world? If I fell asleep for three months I’d wake up ten grand poorer. It’s great that you can completely uproot yourself for three months and then comeback and restart life and somehow save money, but that is so incredibly unrealistic. My bills don’t stop because I took a cheap trip to Brazil.

          • khepri@lemmy.world
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            16 hours ago

            Yeah it’s a different lifestyle and not appealing or possible for everyone in every situation of course (not that I implied it was but for some reason I feel the need to defend my self on that point). I get that the systems we all live under have many of us completely captured by debt or bills and impoverished to the point where the major concerns in life are getting enough to eat each day and not freezing to death homeless out on the street. It’s conditions like that elsewhere in the world which cause people to emigrate in search of a better life in the USA, ironically.

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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          14 hours ago

          Just did a quick search and just to fly to all the european countries and asia I tried were over $1000. South America was $500+. Also, most of us still have to pay rent while we’re traveling, we own shit we can’t just abandon so it’s literally impossible for it to be cheaper to travel and what do you do when you come back to no job?

          • macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            It does not cost thousands. Also, their are cruise ships that will take you to other countries without flying. Again, Bahamas and Caribbean islands.

    • MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com
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      2 days ago

      Many citizens don’t leave their state. Plenty of them are hand to mouth and can’t afford groceries. Even local travel is a luxury to some, so I can understand why they might not have the desire to go through the process and pay for the passport, not to mention that many people don’t know their SSN or have their birth certificates.

        • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          I looked it up, my understanding is US passports are currently issued with your “assigned sex at birth”, i.e. not your gender or biological sex.

          Basically, the passport isn’t showing your gender.

          • tree_frog_and_rain@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            No, it’s showing what’s in my pants. Or was in my pants at birth if I’ve had an operation. And if my gender presentation doesn’t match someone’s expectations, it means I will potentially get detained or harassed. Or possibly even arrested depending on the country.

            So the intent is to hurt the trans community. And being all, ‘well actually’ about it being sex assigned at birth feels like a bad faith take.

            Which is why you’re getting downvoted.

          • ghostlychonk@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            You know what I mean and it’s meant to out and punish transgender Americans for daring to live their lives without being persecuted. At best, it’s going to cause a massive headache for those whose looks no longer match their AGAB.

            • tree_frog_and_rain@lemmy.world
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              17 hours ago

              Gender is sociology. Essentially caste and class roles.

              Sex is biology.

              Folks that like to conflate the two want gender roles to be immutable.

            • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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              22 hours ago

              I don’t think so. I think if someone wants to change their gender that’s their business. It’s not something I’d want to do but calling it weird seems kind of judgy.

      • khepri@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Oh for sure, I’m not saying foreign travel or passport fees are an achievable goal for every single adult American. But we are talking here about the group of people who fly at the very least domestically. And for that, you need Real ID, which does require you to supply things like your SSN and birth certificate. So for that group specifically that we’re talking about here, the domestic flyers that already need or have Real ID, I think a passport is a logical thing to get as well if it’s in your budget.