Not everyone can afford it, otherwise a lot more people would. Germans, Kiwis, the English, and Australians probably also generally have more secure employment and higher wages on average.
It's a farce to say you can't afford it. I backpacked through India for two months and spent a total of $1,534.00 (excluding airfare to and from the country). I was well fed, sheltered, and had a blast. Many occidental countries and developed countries in general, can be pricey if you resort to convenience.
What's really funny, is, a hippie german couple I befriended in India came to travel through the US a year later; they stopped in my city and we spent some time together reminiscing. They told me they were spending less money in the US then they had in India, primarily because they adhered to little or no convenience and used what free resources are actually taken for granted here that aren't available in a developing or crowded country. Water was a big one, they said they got all of their drinking water from bathroom sinks instead of purchasing it (which you have to do in India because of sanitary issues, or you purify it).
The trick with going on a backpacking trip is to leave your job and pick up some under-the-table jobs in the countries you are staying in (if you run out of money and have no recourse, or want to stay longer than you saved for). This is the point many cultured US citizens are trying to make about our fellow "home-locked" brethren: the excuses made are vapid - you either want to go or you don't. There is, obviously, nothing wrong if you're a person that doesn't want to travel; but if you do, all it takes is some clever thinking and embracement of the dynamism of life (you will find a job when you get back, it might even be better than the one you're leaving).
I think you missed the part where he said to leave your job. I've done most of my longer-term (one month) vacations after getting laid off or quitting.
It is, I'm now my own employer - for a very good reason (I'm a programmer, can easily do it, and I realized self-employment > employment on many fronts). When I went to India, though, I quit my job teaching personal self-defense and got a job working at an Italian restaurant when I came back (restaurants are excellent sources of short-term income and have many social/physical benefits that trump jobs in the software/knowledge industry).
From what I understand, wages and jobs are about even, given that Germans, Kiwis, English, and Australian pay much more tax than we do. Kiwis and Aussies do get more time off, but only a few weeks more than us; many take a year off to travel anyway. Come to England or Germany and talk to the locals who feel that outsourcing and foreigners are taking their jobs away; I met a Swedish person just yesterday who was talking about how it would take at least 2 months for him to secure a new job as a seasoned mechanical engineer, because since it's so hard to fire people there, it's super hard to get hired. We have it amazingly good here in America, for a lot of things.
Travel is surprisingly cheap, provided you don't spend your time in 5-star hotels. This month in Belgium will cost me about 850 euros including food and rent, which isn't too far off from living with a roommate in Los Angeles, my previous home. Go to Vietnam and you'll live like a king on $500/month. Oftentimes the most expensive part of the trip is the plane ticket. Of course still not everyone can afford to do this; but if you can, then you'll find that doing so will be a landmark in your life, even if it seemed very scary at first.
>given that Germans, Kiwis, English, and Australian pay much more tax than we do
They pay more taxes but get more for their taxes (free health care, education, more unemployment protection, etc.).
>who was talking about how it would take at least 2 months for him to secure a new job as a seasoned mechanical engineer, because since it's so hard to fire people there, it's super hard to get hired.
But being unemployed in Sweden for two months is a completely different world to being unemployed in the US. Further, if he's working then he'll have a 2 month notice period anyway, so he probably wont have any time off at all.
One thing is not fundamentally better than the other. They are just trade offs. Personally I find the Swedish one a hell of a lot less stressful in bad times.
And more importantly they generally don't have high university tuition bills that need paying. Since most people do this sort of travelling either just before or just after university, I imagine that is a pretty big factor.
Not always. Sometimes is something cultural. English people for example, they take a "Gap year" right after they finish high school and before they go to college. Most of the time they work during their last year of high school in stores, supermarkets, bars, etc. during the weekends to earn money so they can go on their "Gap Year" traveling to Africa, Asia or Latin America... where cost of living is much lower than in the UK and the money they have earned is enough to spend many months!
