Some things from the US that bother me.

I wish my mom kept a blog, because so much of what goes on in her life would make for interesting reading. (I mean, just imagine if you could have followed the Deliverance Drama from the very beginning!) But, as my mother is not a blogger, I'll just have to share info on her behalf. I hope she doesn't mind.

My mother lives in the USA. She is a US citizen. The current year is 2011.

Four years ago, my mother brought eight acres of land in the country, just outside of the small town where she lives. Her plan was to put some of it into pasture, get some horses, and eventually move a house out there. She has certainly done all of this: horses? check! house? check! There's just one minor thing that hasn't yet been taken care of: There's no electricity out at her land.

Now, I've always known that people must pay their electric bills, or else their electricity would be turned off. What I didn't realize was how much money one would have to spend to obtain electricity if there wasn't already a power-line running past one's property. Perhaps I'm just foolish and naive, but I had honestly thought that in the USA in our modern era, everyone had the right to electricity, so long as they paid their monthly bills. Well, everyone does have the right... as long as one can personally shell out the funds to build the infrastructure.

My mom's land is located on an un-named private access road. (I use the term "road" loosely, as it's more of an un-maintained dirt track, part of which floods when it rains. I have literally taken a kayak down part of her "road" in the past.) The nearest electric powerline is located less than half a mile from her property. There are two power companies in her general part of the country, although only one operates in her specific location. Both companies told my mother that she would be responsible for all the costs of installing a powerline to her location.
The first company (which later turned out to not be the company she needed) estimated that it would cost $10,000. The other company, luckily, said they could do it for just over half that. Still, $5000 is a lot of cash. Both companies told my mother that the money had to be paid up front; she couldn't do it in monthly installments. Both companies also said that if someone decided to move in to any of the properties along the new powerline after my mother paid to have it installed, they (the new residents) could use the powerline at no cost (other than monthly utility payments). My mother was rather upset by the thought that she could shell out over $5000 for electrification, and that someone else could move in and use "her" powerline without having to share the cost.
As such, my mom decided to wait. Perhaps someone else would decide to move out there, and they could split the cost of electrification. So, the land sat with no electricity.


In order for the horses and cats to have drinking water,
my mother had a well drilled, and a hand-pump installed.
It's been four years. No one else has moved out there. Most of the neighboring property owners have been foreclosed upon. And my mother just had a house moved out there. Finally my mom decided that it was time to bite the bullet and get the place electrified.
Just fork over a little more than $5k to the electric company, and everything will be taken care of, right? Alas, no. Before she can even do that, her "road" needs a name. For a place to get electricity, it has to have a mailing address, not just a plat number. In order to get a mailing address, one must be located on a named road. And in order to officially name one's private access road, one must pay $200 to the county.
Sigh. End rant #1. Begin rant #2.
I take two different medications every day. They're kind of hard to come by here in South Korea, so I'd been having my mom send them to me from the US. (Well, I get the expensive one from Canada; the other's on the cheap meds list at Wal-Mart, Rite Aid, etc.) There haven't been any problems with getting the one drug from Canada. However, there have been some shortages of one I've been getting from pharmacies in the US. (And because it's on the cheap meds lists at US pharmacies, it's actually more expensive to get it from Canada.)
It took several weeks before my prescription medication was available. The thing is, this isn't some rare, hard-to-come-by drug. In fact, it's pretty commonly prescribed for a bunch of different things. And yet there are shortages. (As a result of all this, I'll be checking out the International Clinic in Itaewon to see if I can get my meds from there.)
Today I heard from my mother that there is a shortage of one of the medications that she takes on a daily basis. Again, this is a commonly prescribed drug. And it's not just my mother's pharmacy of choice in her small community that's having these problems. It's nationwide. Here are just a handful of the articles I found on this topic. Apparently a lot of the drugs that are in short supply are the ones that are cheaper. The ones that are sold on the 'cheap meds' lists at places like Wal-Mart. Yeah. Welcome to the USA in 2011.
Prescription Drug Shortages Threaten Patient CareGrowing Shortage of Some Rx DrugsWhat's behind prescription drug shortages?Hospital Drug Shortages Present Costly Crisis