‘Sedentary Bias’ Explains Why Long-Term Travel Isn’t Yet a Sustainable Lifestyle
And why some people treat your choice to travel with suspicion
In Spain, the government department dealing with new social security numbers will only give you an appointment to get one with a Spanish cell number. To get one of those, you need a social security number.
This is probably one of the most obvious examples of Sedentary Bias in action I’ve ever come across — our belief that migration and mobility are the exception rather than the rule.
It’s the assumption everyone has a domestic cellphone number to plug into a governmental website dealing with immigration. It’s the visa that has to be applied for in your home country. It underpins tax residency laws.
And as any long-term traveler will tell you, it’s freaking hard to operate in an environment that assumes everyone is sedentary when you are not.
The bias is so strong that it has even been proven to fuel distrust of anyone who is migratory or mobile. We have been conditioned to believe that a lack of roots equals a lack of morals.
When people think about the big issues affecting long-term travel like where to pay your taxes, how you apply for visas or whether your company will let you…
