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Only 36% of Americans have a passport According to the State Department, there are only 36% of Americans own a valid passport (and therefore 64% do not). How we decide to use our time and money are major factors in our failure to get abroad, as is a general lack of travel ambition. In 2011 - when the last UK census took place - 76% of people in England and Wales held a UK passport. Only 17% had no passport at all. My aunt's family moved from Taiwan to USA when I was only 9 or 10 years old (3rd grade). When I was at 7th grade, they came back to Taiwan for a vacation. They brought back a "Polaroid camera" that could print the pictures out. I was 13 years old at the time and surprised by that camera I've never seen before. My aunt also brought back many English musical records, i.e. Carpenters, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, .... for me. I listened to those English records over and over again when I was a . My aunt wrote letters from USA and invited my mom to travel to Grand Canyon, Zion, Yellowstone, Yosemite, .... national parks in 1974. When my mom returned to Taiwan, she told me how big USA is and I saw the pictures when she traveled. That really encouraged me to come to USA. In 1978, my mom emigrated to USA for the 2nd time. She found a job at a Japanese Retirement Home, she applied me to come to USA and got USA approval in Sept 1979. In Nov 1979, Jimmy Carter announced to abandon Taiwan and started diplomatic relationship with China. At that time I was working at "Government Employees Clinic Center" as a pharmacist for 3 years. My mom called me almost every night (different Time Zones between Calif and Taiwan) to urge me to quit job and come to USA because communist China threaten to attack Taiwan for consecutive 7 days & nights and destroyed Taiwan completely. Yes, I arrived on USA in 1980 and U.S. Custom gave me a stamp with my Green Card # and he told me "Welcome to America, with this # you can apply your Green Card and S.S. # then you can look for a job". That was how I came to USA. I have the travel gene from my aunt, my mom. Actually I didn't travel much in Taiwan when I was little. But since I came to USA in 1980, I traveled a lot. I found first job as "Loan Secretary" at a bank, I prepared and typed loan documents for customers. Calif didn't recognize Taiwanese pharmacist license, but I had to make a living, so I worked. I had learned a lot about U.S. financial from this "loan secretary" job. I learned mortgage loan, commercial loan, SBA loans, ..... I learned how to build up "Credit" in order to borrow money. My supervisor was a Senior Vice President of the bank who was a 4th generation Italian-American. I only can speak with him in English. He said I have learned very fast, so he raised my salary after 3 months probation period. I only could bring $3,000 from Taiwan in 1980 because Taiwan's limitation at the time. I lived with my mom in an apartment, saved money to buy a car. My boss told me "don't buy car with cash, borrow auto loan to build up your credit." I said loan had to pay with interest. He said if I pay payments on time for at least six months, the bank will trust you. So, I bought my first car with an auto loan. Then I have had credit card after six months and then after a year I had my first 2 weeks vacation WITH PAY. I felt USA is a very wonderful country. I was single, had a car, credit card, vacation, .... I learned what is the USA financial system. Three years later I quit bank job to attend USC (Univ. of Southern Calif) school of pharmacy for a year and passed my Calif pharmacist license exam. I became a pharmacist again. Of course, I got more pay and bought the first condo with my mom with a mortgage loan in 1984. My first property in USA after 4 years I stepped on this land. Honesty is the best policy. |
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I am an American and got my first passport in 2004 so I could visit China. Before that I had only been all over the U.S. and British Columbia in Canada. Mostly I went backpacking and fishing in the mountains when I took vacations. Until recently, Americans didn't need a passport to visit Canada and Mexico. With so many things to see in the U.S. and North America that didn't need a passport, it is not surprising that most Americans don't have one. I saw they built lots of vacant buildings in many cities and became "ghost town" and "ghost mall". It was very weird. People couldn't borrow loan to buy properties (banks didn't trust people will pay back), so millions of units, buildings left vacant. They didn't know in real estate market need to check "supply" and "demand" in balance. My bank CEO told me the same, China had too many supply but much less demand when he went to China in April 2007. it is a common sense but Chinese government only cared about GDP growth percentage to show the world that their country was growing fast. It was so very odd that average people lived in narrow lanes, small rooms shared with others but the huge tall buildings left empty. It is NOT normal. Even I could tell in 2008 that was not right and dangerous to their economy. Honesty is the best policy.
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I am an American and got my first passport in 2004 so I could visit China. Before that I had only been all over the U.S. and British Columbia in Canada. Mostly I went backpacking and fishing in the mountains when I took vacations. Until recently, Americans didn't need a passport to visit Canada and Mexico. With so many things to see in the U.S. and North America that didn't need a passport, it is not surprising that most Americans don't have one.
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The next blog will be my travel journey from 1981 and on. Honesty is the best policy.
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