For the most part Tony, I don't think the travel abroad experience is helping as many people as even you want to hope. Sure tons of ignorants go on their luxury vacation, but remember the vast majority of people don't even have a degree. It's best to separate the groups. No doubt ignorance of the world is widespread in colleges, but the majority in that segment probably does understand those matters quite well, particularly amongst the wealthy who can afford such a trip.
I mean yeah, as I said it's obviously a marker of privilege and that's a problem onto itself.
That said, I'm not as sure that rich kids are necessary much more aware of the world around them than poorer ones. There are plenty of wealthy, ignorant people
Yeah, they're the sort of people who can talk about their favorite restaurants on multiple continents but who have never visited lower income neighborhoods of their own city. Or who brag about how the friends they made while studying abroad "broadened their horizons" while having no friends with a substantially different class background at home.
For what it's worth, this is a global phenomenon, one that's even more extreme in Latin America than it is in the United States. For instance, it's quite common for the children of Mexican elites to stay confined in their gated communities, rarely venturing out until they are pre-teens or teens. Then, they attend private schools before attending private, "prestigious" universities in America, which become their experience with diversity.
To be fair to the Mexican elite or the elite from other countries in Latin America, it's not as if our elite is any better. The truly wealthy in the United States are blissfully ignorant of their own country.
Note: I am not talking about someone who is merely affluent and from, say, Lincoln, Nebraska. I'm talking about the children of "quants" or the children of partners at "big law" firms or the children of executives.
