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'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

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Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#231

Post by throw0101a »

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #161
throw0101a wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, part of that is that even when an ambulance gets there, what happens next? […] Out in the boondocks, the golden hour is laughable. In the province in Ontario, where we have a few density populated communities often surrounded by large stretches of wilderness, folks are transported by helicopter in emergencies: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_ambulance * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_medical_services * h…

We have air ambulances in the US. With it being the US and the community being largely rural and poor, it's more economic to die than be flown to help. Most families can't swing a $40,000 cost for a life flight, and insurance in some cases won't cover it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/why-the-flig...

In Ontario (and Canada) the majority of healthcare costs are done via taxes through our single-payer systems (health is provincial jurisdiction, hence plural; though there are federal equalization payments).

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#232

Post by samatman »

adfm wrote: post #59
rosseloh wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>perhaps everything between California and Oklahoma = Midwest If you're right and that's the definition some people use, I'm not surprised they're confused. Considering I see most people using "midwest" referring to places like Ohio and Michigan. I've always preferred "Great Plains" when trying to describe my general location to folks online. You say "I live in the midwest" and everyone seems to assume you're in Ohio…

You could say anything between the Great Divide and the Eastern divide is "midwest" and nobody would look at you funny. https://www.theadventurecompany.com/continental-divide-in-co...

That heuristic works right up to the second you find yourself south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#233

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

ramchip wrote: post #211
noir_lord wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much the same, I can re-wire a house (factory actually though it's been a long time since I trained as an industrial sparks), plaster, do basic joinery, plumbing, tiling, engine/motorcycle maintenance (I do my motorcycle and rebuilt scramblers when I was a kid), weld (not done it for a long time but it'd come back), sheet metal work etc all to a reasonable or better standard. I've never lived out in the countr…

> I know people my age who can't rewire a plug which is frankly embarrassing. I’m sure there’s a country / culture factor there, but that’s rather condescending. I’m in my thirties, and there isn’t a single place I’ve lived in as an adult where it would have been OK for me to mess with the electricity, plumbing, or even paint the walls.

Putting a new plug on your kettle is allowed in all 50 states and most if not all of western Europe.

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#234

Post by samatman »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #129
bookmarkable wrote: post #56

I would love to see this type of study on Florida.

That would just be a proxy study on people from the wealthy urban parts of the northeast.

He didn't mean that Florida, he meant the other one.

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#235

Post by bumby »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #230
bumby wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the problem is we’ve confused (and society has disproportionately valued) what is valuable to the economy vs what is valuable to society. I think it was Penn Jillette who basically said we should most value those who we’d want around in the apocalypse. Farmers, doctors, mechanics would all be worth more than a financier. Maybe the irony is that in the coming decades they will have their comeuppance if…

David Graeber (RIP) and others would seriously question whether the financier even does anything for the economy, let alone society.

I think the argument is they provide liquidity to an economy, but I’m not sure how that it translated to a value assessment

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#236

Post by libraryatnight »

arminiusreturns wrote: post #130
dualboot wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"headbutting of cultures that so many Americans on the coastal big cities just don't get or approve of, and love to condescendingly talk about that kind of personality as lesser or barbarous in some way." This cultural divide has deep roots in the power struggle that was created when the people who settled the Appalachian's figured out that converting fields of corn into distilled bottles of whisky was far more prof…

That's an interesting take I hadn't really thought of before. Do you have any book or reading recommendations on the topic?

If you're interested about the booze side of things, I recommend "The Alcoholic Republic" https://www.amazon.com/Alcoholic-Republic-American-Tradition...

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#237

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

Zak wrote: post #182
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He did romanticize the whole situation. The situation he's talking about could easily be the rural south or Appalachia. As someone from one of those areas, let me assure you, the "ruggedness" isn't beautiful, it's because there is a lack of service. And the ruggedness shows on the people and their homes.

I grew up in Alaska, and I think I disagree in a philosophical sense. There's a lot of stuff hacked together in ways experts in the relevant fields would certainly not find beautiful. Expanding foam is probably not in the toolkit of very many master architects; most people have never read an electrical code (and in many places, there's no entity imposing one); many boats, snowmobiles, and other vehicles have been ada…

There is beauty in a utility shell script. But I guarantee you, no one in this forum wants to work at an org or in a society where everything is a mishmash of shell-scripts. It's sometimes nicer to have things that scale and are standardized across the board.

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#238

Post by spenczar5 »

01100011 wrote: post #206
cycloptic wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are conflating things. The idea I see behind most self-reliance is that it significantly reduces the amount of wealth needed to accomplish everyday tasks. Following that, you wouldn't see much of a need for those do-it-yourself types to accumulate wealth just for the sake of doing so.

If only we didn't live in a world of property taxes... Wealth should not be sneered at. Wealth buys a new well for your farm. Wealth buys you tools to expand your capabilities. Wealth allows you to exploit the capabilities of society to accomplish things beyond yourself. Do you want to preserve gun or property rights so you can continue to live a self-reliant lifestyle? That takes wealth(or you can cop-out and let ot…

> Most HN readers time is far more valuable than a plumber or carpenter.

Are you sure about that? A good plumber, here in Seattle, can cost $300/hour.

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#239

Post by rsynnott »

vikramkr wrote: post #38
crocodiletears wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure 'midwest' has taken over as a more polite version of 'flyover country' in the minds of many in our more uhh elite institutions. I'm sure we're not worth distinguishing. Outside of the cities, we're all just barbarian backwaters.

It's from a UK institution. I'd be surprised if the average member of that institution could distinguish US cities either. I assure you that people in coastal US cities are fully capable of distinguishing the mountainy place where there's legal weed from the flat place where there's corn. As a former midwesterner though, wouldn't feel confident about assuring you of anything more than that. Except during election sea…

That's completely inaccurate!

There's also Seattle, a wet place filled with radio psychiatrists.

And the place down the bottom where they make meth in big underground factories.

That's about it though.

(Being serious, I think it's probably a bit less of a thing nowadays, but when I was a kid my impression of the US was very much that it was ~three cities plus a scary bit in the south somewhere).

Re: 'Wild West' mentality lingers in modern populations of US mountain regions

#240

Post by dmerks »

DenisM wrote: post #168
hanniabu wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a town in Alaska where you need to have your appendix removed in order to live there because the nearest hospital is 625 miles away. https://www.bbc.com/future/gallery/20180810-villas-las-estre...

I'm pretty sure you can learn to remove your own appendix, how hard can it be?

If memory serves, the policy mandating the removal of the appendix before travel to Antarctica was born after the sole physician living there had no other choice than to perform an appendectomy on himself.

Wikipedia: The operation started at 02:00 local time on 1 May with the help of a driver and meteorologist, who provided instruments and held a mirror so Rogozov could observe areas not directly visible. Rogozov lay in a semi-reclining position, half-turned to his left side. A solution of 0.5% novocaine was used for local anesthesia of the abdominal wall. Rogozov made a 10–12 cm incision of the abdominal wall, but while opening the peritoneum he accidentally cut the cecum and had to suture it. Then he exposed the appendix. According to his report, the appendix was found to have a dark stain at its base, and Rogozov estimated it would have burst within a day. The appendix was resected and antibiotics were applied directly into the peritoneal cavity. General weakness and nausea developed about 30–40 minutes after the start of the operation so that short pauses for rest were repeatedly needed after that. By about 04:00 the operation was complete.

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