That way of life is a privilege for us (westerners, mainly white male).
Just imagine how it would work out if someone from central Africa would like to travel through Europe sponging off others like some of those (I don't need money to travel guys) do.


But even if you travel on your own money, for us it's easy to save money if you want to (maybe not for single parents), all you need is a normal job, you don't have to be from the upper class.
If working in many of the normal the jobs we do, in the third world, we would not be familiar with the concept of holiday.
And we can burn all our money and come home totaly broke and society will look after us.


Visa is the other thing, possible only for the rich.

__________________
My RTW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrXt660ztenere

Yes, that's probably true at the moment (up to a point anyway), and has been over the course of my lifetime. Probably since the sixties if you're in the UK. But it hasn't always been so. It wasn't true for my father and it certainly wasn't true for anyone further back in my timeline. Our family tree research tells me I come from a long line of North of England coal miners, most of whom never travelled more than a few miles from their birthplace over the course of their lives. Travel for them was the 1/4 mile walk from the pit to the 2 rooms they lived in with 6 children. In fact I'm pretty certain I was the first in my family ever to have a passport. So the sort of travel we talk about here, and to some extent take for granted, is a recent phenomenon - for what was my stratum of society anyway.

Re Wheelie's suggestion that we "offer free room and board, receive mail, serve as a host for visa applications, give them some work to make a few bucks, donate used equipment we can easily part with, fill up their tank, give some provisions, and put some money in their pocket", I have a friend in the US who, for many years now, has been doing just that. He's had travellers staying with him for weeks on end, hosts bike groups in his garden, employs people regularly and is known in the area as someone who takes in 'waifs and strays'.

There's no thought of 'putting something back' or 'owing something to the biker community' and he's not after publicity or reward or anything like that, it's just the way he is. And that, I suspect, is probably the sort of person who'll help out if you're stuck at the side of the road somewhere. Societal norms in different countries put different expectations on people so in some places you'll find help more readily than others but I've always been surprised at the amount of assistance people have offered me when I've been in need.