Something I see with some regularity is some – typically European – commenter talking about how weird it is that Americans largely don’t have passports. This is assumed to imply that Americans are insular, don’t care about the larger world. But there is a simpler reason why we often don’t give a damn about passports: we don’t need them.
By overlaying laying a map of Europe over the US, it’s immediately obvious just how *small* Europe is. What I consider to be a modest vacation in the US, the kind I’ve been on many times, would cover enough territory to cover virtually the entirely of Europe. And never once was a passport needed. And the trips I’ve been on have not yet covered all of the US. It’s entirely feasible for an American to spend his whole life traveling far and wide and never once need a passport. Until 9/11, it was possible for Americans to also journey into Canada without a passport, but circumstances have obviously changed that.
So the real question should not be “why do0n’t more Americans have passports,” the question should be “why should so many other people have any need of them?”