I believe that everyone who is convicted of welfare fraud should be sentenced to six months in Haiti, where they would see what true poverty is. It may give them some perspective on how lucky we are in the U.S., where people complain about everything. Our poverty level is considered wealthy in some of the poorest countries on earth. The $200 allotment for food stamps for one person in this country is more than some people make in a month in theirs.

And all racists should be sent to India to live as a Dalit for 6 months, and see what it's like to be discriminated against simply because of the circumstances of your birth. Maybe after having stones thrown at them, and having their children denied something as basic as education, they would not be so quick to hate people for their race or ethnicity. Or maybe send them to Mexico to live in the tin shacks and have their children play in sewage all day long.

It does no good for a rich person to go live in another country in an upscale environment. Not much is learned from that. People should be forced to live in countries that would make them appreciate our country and all that we take for granted. I think that before a wealthy person is allowed into college, they should have to be in the Peace Corps or Americorps for at least a year. I know that is discriminatory, but maybe when they returned, they would think more about what they wanted to do with their lives, not just go into some glitzy glamorous occupation.

Recidivant criminals should have to spend the first six months of every year of every subsequent sentence in a Mexican jail. Third time violent offenders should be sent to Mexico for the duration of their sentence. They have it too good in our jail system with cable, air conditoning, three square meals a day, and all the drugs they want. Let them see what it's like to live on gruel and water and be beat for the most minor infractions, and then see how much they want to commit another crime. I'm sure it would be cheaper for our government to pay Mexico to keep them than it would to keep them here anyway, and they could use the money.

The U.S. is too soft on people. We don't understand what true hardship is, because our government is there to bail us out. We don't appreciate what we have, because we don't know how good even the least of it is. Everyone should have to see what true hardship is, so they can have something to compare to. I believe it would make a more humble, grateful...and maybe not as lazy and whiny...society for all of us.

I have lived in 3 countries in my life, and now due to the nature of my work have to travel to central and South America 2 to 3 timer per year. The experience of living in another country is unique and enriching, but honestly I feel that I derived more benefit from spending time in circles outside of one's traditional socioeconomic class. I mean a few notches above, as well as a few notches below. That provided me far more beneficial experience than just having lived in different countries.

Living in another country is great to expose one to a new language, or to see different customs, but living both below and above the level in which you grew up, be it in the US or anywhere else, provides you with a broader view of all things, social, cultural and political.

Personally, as much as I adored, and continue to adore my experience in other countries, if I had to choose my foreign exposure over my experience across socioeconomic classes, I would choose and recommend the latter.

Unquestionably.

One of the biggest issues I see in Americans is closed mindedness. They see their little circle, their country, their people and nothing else. This lends many of them an ignorance that's hard to ignore. A little time else where would do wonders.

Do I think our government should foot the bill for that? Hell no.

I think that living in another country, by yourself, after the age of 18, for 6 months, would be a huge boon to every individual as well as to the countries they live in. I think most people would come to realize that humans are humans everywhere - with all our good and bad qualities. I think most people would be surprised how much good they found in other people - strangers they have never met. I think that the world would become an even smaller place than it already has become with the advent of the internet, television, and instant communications.

Travel, with immersion in different cultures, is one of the very best educations which anyone can have, not just to teach history, art, languages, cuisine, or culture, but to teach consideration, tolerance, compassion, generosity, grace, and gratitude.

Yes, living in another country for a time, away from the tourist sections, can be greatly beneficial to people. We take a lot for granted here in how 'good' we have it, but we also are missing a lot of the 'good stuff'.

In Greece, the families in this one smaller village all knew each other. They weren't rural - they wore normal clothes just like we'd buy off the rack, had homes, televisions, cable, internet, etc.

But every night, at dinnertime, the television was off, and the entire extended family gathered to eat. Flatbreads dipped in oils and spices and sauces. Fresh fruits and fresh vegetables. Cheeses and wines, often homemade. Men would drink and women would cook, men would cook and women would drink... stories were told, people laughed, jokes were told, people groaned.

This wasn't a monthly event or a weekly one... it happened nightly. Families stayed together for years. There was very little history of divorce down this family line, because the family couldn't 'grow apart', because their way of life required them to grow together.

Strong heady teas and perfume from heady teens out in the yard, flirting, throwing balls, riding bikes.

I want this for my family. I want this for me.

When I was a child, we visited Mexico, a lot. My parents were going to retire there one day. We visited homes where people had dirt floors. We ate in kitchens where the meat on the table might just have come from the backyard a few hours earlier.

This isn't sad to me. These people were happy. They loved their lives. They loved their farm-type homes. They had family, love, 'enough'--abundance.

I could live like this if I had to. I don't want to though, and that's why it makes me grateful for all I have now... the things I choose to have, and blessed to have.

But seeing it as a kid, through my young eyes and looking back now with my older and hopefully wiser eyes, I know that I learned so much from it and I take less for granted because of it.

Cultures are fascinating to me. I still hope to retire to Spain for half the year and New Zealand the other half of the year. Italy should come in there somewhere as should France and Germany.

When I worked for General Electric, they were owned by a parent company called Nuovo Pignone, and that company was based in Italy. We couldn't get ahold of them for two hours every afternoon (their time) because it was time for their families to go home for 'dinner', our equivalent to 'lunch', and that was considered important company-wide. They had longer total work days than we did, but they had more time off in the year, often had children in their offices and work areas, and closed the entire company down for a large portion of August for some holiday - not sure what that was. This is a multi-billion dollar company, mind you, world-wide, not some little ma and pop.

THAT is the culture I want people to see and feel and understand that differs from us. Unlike what some people here are saying with their answers, there's poverty everywhere. I can show you slums in the United States that rivals those of any third world country.

I'm not talking about forcing people to experience poverty - we can do that right here - I'm not talking about people even experiencing fear (as in a war-torn country, though it might bring about some gratitude for sure that we are saf'er' here than that, so we think).... but it's not about sympathy for other people in need - we should have that all the time. Going to another country to visit the culture of that country shouldn't be about 'sympathy'. That's such an elitist and uppity thing - like saying Americans are better than they are. We aren't. We're all human beings, just different.

If we go to another country it shouldn't be to make ourselves feel better about what we have and they don't... It would be about sharing, experiencing and understanding the differences... some of what they have might just be better than what we think is so good.