I agree 100% Sharc, like you I have had the fortune to travel quite a bit. One thing you realize real quick after visiting Mexico or any island in the caribbean is our level of wealth, expectations of the standard of living and the difference in poverty level. I always thought it would be beneficial to the patriotic atmosphere of our country to send all high school students to a third world country for a semester and experience what those people have. I think much more appreciation for the USA would come out of it.
On the other hand I think people are getting frustrated with the move towards socialism we are experiencing lately. Not that we are close to being a socialist state but as we were taught in school , democratic countries are on one side of the spectrum and communists countries are on the other. Both have a tendency to move to the center where socialism is. The past few decades have proved this true in our world.