Nite and Brian distance is relative. I bet that most people regardless of countries travel about the same distance to work. There are folk who live in cities and folk who live in the country but all have jobs in their own locality usually. Lots of people in the UK commute to work and some may even travel longer distances than the average Aussy or American. An interesting fact is that only around 20% of the US population have passports. An ex president Mr Bush I am reliably informed did not even have a passport so had never set foot outside Amercia till he became president and even then was reluctant to travel abroad.
In the UK around 70% of the population have passports. The point I am making is simple.... any country with the majority of the population having never set foot outside their own country and in a lot of cases their own state becomes insular and perhaps ignorant about the outside world and its workings. Now before I get accused of being an American hater I will state that nothing could be further from the truth. I just think that from time to time some insular Americans need reminding that they are not the greatest and the system they think is so great is far from perfect. They might realise just how similar or vastly different other countries are before judging them from their own insular experiences and narrow minded viewpoints.

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