Originally Posted by
Machka
If you are under 30 you can go to the EU and get temporary jobs. If you are over 30, and don't live in the EU, you need to get yourself a good job with decent holiday time.
There are many jobs that don't offer decent holiday time because they are relatively unpopular (lower paid). These jobs afford little leave time and when employees do get leave, the costs of traveling make it a sacrifice to do so. So people prefer to stay home and pay off bills and debt than to travel; not that they might not want to travel more if it wasn't such a sacrifice.
But by posting those links, I'm showing you that these long bicycle routes already exist in many parts of the world.
And not all of us live in the US.
Why do you find it important to point out that everyone doesn't live in the US? Personally, I think globally but I'm not nationalistic so I don't go around paying homage to national identity and difference. I happen to live in the US because it's the only government that I know of that will allow me to settle permanently but it will be great when future generations can live wherever best suits them without national territorial restrictions.
Sometimes it is simply that "the masses" like to remain in one spot doing what they are doing. They don't want to move ... they're not even all that keen on travel. It's not that they are pining for a way to combine travel and work ... they're happy doing what they are doing.
The expression, "snowbird," is sometimes used for people who live in cold climates and like to migrate south for the winter. As far as I know, this is a global phenomenon. Retirees, especially, like to spend extended periods of time in warmer areas but they don't like to stay there when it gets too hot so they also want to retain northern domicile for summer. This pattern of migration would be fine except roads and airports get overwhelmed by the traffic volumes. Making your way gradually south/north by bike or otherwise and being able to live pleasantly without a car en route would make this kind of migration culture more sustainable for more people, don't you think?
And a comment about the 1-2 weeks off a year. In many countries employees have a lot more holiday time than that. That's really short.
There's no point into getting into a nationalist competition over which countries have the best job benefits. US labor rights are weak because the US provides markets for global investment. So governments/corporations that offer strong benefits can afford to do so because of the many businesses that capitalize on cheaper labor. Knowing that there will always be such businesses, the solution becomes to find ways to allow people to combine work with travel and other activities in that it's just not practical to give everyone loads of time off. People can cook and clean and perform other work while they travel. Who says you have to clean the same rooms at the same motel all year long instead of moving from motel to motel or from one fast food restaurant to another?
But the travel and work you're proposing is just about as restrictive as staying at home and doing nothing. You're proposing that people could travel 100 miles to the next stop, stay there a couple weeks, then 100 miles to the next stop, stay there a couple weeks, 100 miles to the next stop ... all in a line. Can you imagine that through Kansas or North Dakota? You'd have the same scenery no matter where you went!
I can't predict where such MUPways/turnpikes would be popular and where not. I would guess that amenities could be built along such roads, wherever they would be. I get the feeling that you're more interested in imagining the most difficult scenarios for this idea to succeed and using those as a means of undermining the idea generally for some reason. Is there some reason you're just generally opposed to it?
I'd rather have a permanent home and job in one place, and then have the choice of taking long weekends once a month to travel whatever distance I want in whatever direction I want. And longer holidays to travel further afield.
I don't think most people would want to give up a permanent home to keep their permanent belongings. That said, it is nice to be able to get away. You should realize that every time you claim to prefer an elite job with more time off that can be scheduled flexibly, you're basically saying that there's no reason to do anything for all those "masses" that are stuck in low paying jobs with little time off.
But if I were to think about an ideal work/travel situation it would be something like this ... I'd work for a company with offices in, say, Bordeaux (France), Victoria (Canada), and Hobart (Tasmania) .... and maybe a few other places like maybe Hualien, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Perth, Calgary, etc.. And then I'd move between those places ... January to April in Hobart, May to August in Victoria, September to November in Bordeaux ... and maybe December in Hualien one year, Perth the next ...... Or something like that. With the usual month+ holiday time in there somewhere, of course.
That would require air travel. If "the masses" would all travel and work like that, the skies would be full of jets, airports boiling over with people, general insanity, not to mention the environmental impact. Some things will never be available beyond the reach of an economic elite. That's not such a problem, imo, but I'm looking at what can improve quality of life that CAN be within everyone's reach.
The risk is part of the excitement ... the adventure. And besides, if you're trying to combine travel and work, you don't want to be working all the time, and especially not working in the same job you've always had.
The appeal of the harvest trail, for example, is that you can work for 6 weeks in one place, then take the next 6 weeks off to travel, explore, lay around the beach or whatever, while making your way to the next location maybe 500 km away, and then pick up a couple month's more work doing something different, and then take several more weeks off, and then pick up another different job for a few weeks.
Living like this is wonderful until your funding ceases to permit it. I'm not sure what it would take for all low-paying jobs to pay enough and offer enough scheduling flexibility for everyone to live and travel in this way. Motel rooms and offices need cleaning and maintenance. Restaurants and supermarkets need workers, not to mention other retail. If the same people traveling are also working to maintain the travel amenities, everyone is free instead of some people being stuck in one place serving those lucky enough to be free to travel from place to place.
Last edited by tandempower; 10-27-13 at 08:34 AM.