It's about people, experiences, fresh-air, and knowledge as much as artifacts... an inoculation against stupidity if you will. For example, when you hear someone bashing European healthcare, you'll not wonder but know they're full of shit. Simply put, if you endeavor to be well-rounded there is no substitute for travel.
There's something in what you say, but I've spent enough time in youth hostels to know that the connections you make with people while traveling, even if they appear very meaningful at the time, often turn out to be superficial. Travel is one way to end up a well-rounded human being, but there are many others. For example: http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2006/11/how_to_be_...
Maybe, maybe not. I still keep in touch with most friends I've made and find them valuable. Also, travel doesn't have to equal hostels, the piece itself talks mostly about hiking, surfing, and writing.
I think the superficial-boozing aspect comes from youth, which is common but fades as the years take their toll. As I'm pushing forty I find myself in nightclubs much less and museums more. For example, I've spent a few days in the Louvre and Archaeological Museum in Athens. I've lived with a family in the Himalayas ... there is no book that can do these experiences justice, sorry.
The choices we make while traveling are as important as the travel.
European here, I think there are plenty of good reasons to bash European healthcare, chief among them being the long queue you end up in when you have health problems, people die waiting, this is not an opinion it's a fact, and here in Sweden, we're looking to cut down the wait as best as we can, but people keep falling through the cracks.
Anyway, it's important to remember that it's hard to get a deep understanding of everything in a country just because you've traveled there / lived there for a short time. Most information you get while traveling is important, but ultimately a lot more shallow than the information you have on your own country/culture.
I used that as merely an example, but was afraid of it taking over the conversation. Sure nothing's perfect, but I'll share one of my experiences. Had the misfortune of cutting up one knee in Greece, one in California a few years earlier. Got the same great care in both places, a few hours in the hospital, some bandages, and antibiotics. Bill in Greece $50, bill in California $1600. Bill collectors showed up in CA to get paid a second time.
You also seem to be taking the position that, since living in a place for a short time does not give perfect insight, that it is not valuable. I would disagree.
Based on what I've heard about US healthcare from people I know, it holds a much higher quality than European healthcare for those who can afford the best insurance. European healthcare fluctuates between bad and adequate, US healthcare fluctuates between terrible and excellent. Neither solution should be immune to criticism.
Steve Jobs had over 6 billion dollars. When he got sick he went to Switzerland for care.
US health care is not "much higher quality" than Europe regardless of income. That's a Fox News myth. Like anything, it's not black-and-white. US health care has some things that are very good, but for most everything they are no better (and often worse) than any other first world country. What we can say is that they're much more expensive than anyone else.
