Tsk tsk. I think not.
I was pleasantly surprised however to find that Telegraph.co.uk published an article titled Gap year advice: relish the freedom.
To my fellow Americans, can you imagine the NY Times publishing a “Top 10 Tips for Pre-College Students Traveling Around the World?”. Never going to happen. Bottom line in the U.S.: if you’re not a student and you’re unemployed, you’re a loser. You must either be working or be in school or you’re unproductively wasting your life. There’s no two ways about it here. It’s a shame really.
I haven’t even read the article, but it places in stark contrast the vastly different views on travel of Americans vs. the U.K. (and much of the rest of the industrialized world).