3 ms·

Ok, ok, since you want to be horsey: ambulances take 50-60 minutes to arrive (pregnant? heart disease? prepare to feel third world terror), the police can’t rea

by crx07 7y ago

Ok, ok, since you want to be horsey: ambulances take 50-60 minutes to arrive (pregnant? heart disease? prepare to feel third world terror), the police can’t realistically save you from any kind of violent altercation or crime and no one else will see it happen, there’s no public transportation and you can’t walk to town—so you’re stranded on a desert island if your car ever breaks down. There’s also a constant threat of things like venomous snakes and predators, so expect your chihuahua to get eaten if he walks out at night (happened not once but twice to my next door neighbors). The list of stressful bullshit goes on and on.

jjeaff 7y ago
Many people in rural areas have medivac insurance so they can be airlifted in a serious emergency. I believe it used to cost us around $100 a year. And let's be real, the cops don't show up during a crime in the city either.
- Frondo 7y ago
  No, let's be real, the cops show up in cities pretty reliably. The drawback is that sometimes they do good for the situation, while a third of the time they end up shooting someone. Interesting you mention medivac insurance -- I spent a number of years in a very small town in rural west Texas and I've never heard of that. Numerous times I heard of the race to get someone to one of the towns with a hospital 45 minutes away, though, maybe several times a year. Maybe it's not at as widespread as you think, or somehow this town of about a thousand people (with one gas station, one restaurant open part time, and no grocery stores) entirely missed out on the existence of something that'd probably have saved lives.
  - magduf 7y ago
    The other thing about hospitals is that, in a place like that, the nearest hospital is probably in the closest small city, but that hospital is staffed with incompetent doctors because who wants to work in a place like that? So if you have a real emergency, you want to go to a good hospital in a larger city, but that's much farther away.
    - jjeaff 7y ago
      That's a very short sighted opinion. There are plenty of very intelligent doctors that love to live in the countryside. Due to the sheer larger numbers in urban areas, I'm sure you are likely to have the best of the best in cities, but everyone can't be treated by the top 1% of doctors.
      - magduf 7y ago
        No, it's not shortsighted at all. There aren't enough highly competent doctors to go around and staff all the rural hospitals. My mom lives in a smallish town (and it's at least a college town) with a hospital right down the street, and constantly has to travel to the nearest city for medical issues because the hospital doesn't have any decent doctors and all the specialists are in the city.

by crx07 7y ago

jjeaff 7y ago

Many people in rural areas have medivac insurance so they can be airlifted in a serious emergency. I believe it used to cost us around $100 a year. And let's be real, the cops don't show up during a crime in the city either.

Frondo 7y ago
No, let's be real, the cops show up in cities pretty reliably. The drawback is that sometimes they do good for the situation, while a third of the time they end up shooting someone. Interesting you mention medivac insurance -- I spent a number of years in a very small town in rural west Texas and I've never heard of that. Numerous times I heard of the race to get someone to one of the towns with a hospital 45 minutes away, though, maybe several times a year. Maybe it's not at as widespread as you think, or somehow this town of about a thousand people (with one gas station, one restaurant open part time, and no grocery stores) entirely missed out on the existence of something that'd probably have saved lives.
- magduf 7y ago
  The other thing about hospitals is that, in a place like that, the nearest hospital is probably in the closest small city, but that hospital is staffed with incompetent doctors because who wants to work in a place like that? So if you have a real emergency, you want to go to a good hospital in a larger city, but that's much farther away.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    That's a very short sighted opinion. There are plenty of very intelligent doctors that love to live in the countryside. Due to the sheer larger numbers in urban areas, I'm sure you are likely to have the best of the best in cities, but everyone can't be treated by the top 1% of doctors.
    - magduf 7y ago
      No, it's not shortsighted at all. There aren't enough highly competent doctors to go around and staff all the rural hospitals. My mom lives in a smallish town (and it's at least a college town) with a hospital right down the street, and constantly has to travel to the nearest city for medical issues because the hospital doesn't have any decent doctors and all the specialists are in the city.