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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSelling plasma to survive: how over a million American families live on $2 per day
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/2/9248801/extreme-poverty-2-dollarsReally good interview at Vox with two researchers who did fieldwork in several US cities and the Mississippi delta (where I'm from). Read the whole thing, but I really want to highlight one of the researcher's takeaway (emphasis mine):
We have to do some things to improve the quality of the jobs we have, such as toughening up oversight of labor standards. Let's start by doing a good job of enforcing what we have on the books. We'd like to see minimum wage increases and see what that does for improving equality, along with this program to increase the number of jobs. Then we turn to housing, which is itself part of the jobs problem. If people had more stable employment, it'd go a long way toward improving the housing problems. We need a bigger investment in our housing subsidies programs. There's a lot of evidence that that pays dividends, as well.
Finally, we think that we need to bring back some kind of cash safety net. People really just need cash when they're at the very bottom, when they're the poorest of the poor. They need a little bit of cash to get out of the circumstances they're in. When we see people selling their SNAP and losing 40 cents of every dollar they sell if we provided a little bit of cash income, we could, without increasing what we spend, increase the value of what they get. We could give some of their SNAP in cash. The most obvious thing would be to fix the problems with TANF by closing some of the loopholes that incentivize states to keep their caseloads low.
The good news is that we see histories of labor force attachment even among the poorest families in America. So there's a possibility of providing a cash safety net that's pegged to past work. There's a couple of options for doing that outside the TANF system, but we could also just improve TANF so it's fulfilling the mission it was meant to fulfill in 1996. It was supposed to be temporary assistance for needy families. Let's actually make it that.
A thousand times yes. We do way too much in-kind when what people really need is cash.
This kind of fieldwork is especially important because so much of our data is only collected on a quarterly or even annual basis: if you look at annual income, many of the $2/day families will be much closer to the poverty line. But that doesn't help in the lean months (particularly since they are mostly shut out of the banking system).
(Side note: when I was out of doors in Boston years ago a lot of people suggested I sell plasma, but I couldn't find where to go or how to do it and concluded it wasn't a thing anymore. Where do you find places that buy it?)
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)There is an enormous market for transplantable body parts in India, mostly kidneys.
The donors get ripped off in the process, of course, with having to pay the "broker" and then often having lingering poor health effects.
As to where to sell plasma in Boston:
I googled it.
Quite a few places popped up.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)And vague references that it's illegal in MA but nothing definitive.
Orrex
(63,085 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)And this is the poorest 1% of Americans
Orrex
(63,085 posts)After scolding a nation of Americans one-percenters for living in relative luxury while the world's 99% languishes in the salt mines, the author mysteriously self-deleted.
Pity, because it would put this current thread in perspective, or vice versa.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Orrex
(63,085 posts)I felt fine before, thanks. That's the luxury of the world's elite. Who cares if I can't heat my house or pay my medical bills? At least I enjoy the privilege of living among the one-percenters, so I have nothing to complain about.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)They found me. Obviously, that's not the way homeless people are hooking up with them, though. Google and public computers in libraries are my guess. I'm guessing they got my name off some list of Medicaid recipients or somesuch.
But they want way too much paperwork. I have no idea where my social security card got to. I'd have to probably spend a couple of days of sitting in government office waiting rooms and a fair amount of cash just to get all the stuff I need to try to donate.
madokie
(51,076 posts)returning home from 'nam where I sold my plasma for the 5 bucks it paid. I'm not ashamed of it nor am I proud of it. It was a way for me to get a few bucks to buy some food with until I got that first paycheck. Upon returning the left over blood into my body the last time I did it the person missed the vein in my arm and after a while I got concerned that my arm was swelling up so I bring it to their attention so they go to re-stick me when I said I believe I can survive without this pint of blood and left. It took a few days for my arm swelling to go down but it wasn't something I worried with. It taught me a lesson though and that lesson was to not do that again.
I don't like needles other than a sewing needle
exboyfil
(17,857 posts)Sometimes there are bonuses. This is for 2-3 hours/week or so of time - most of which can be spent reading. I have been actively doing it this year. Center is very close to my house. The workers are very friendly. The donors are mostly middle class - most driving vehicles more valuable than mine Also the many donors have smartphones or tablets - I got my $60 (including case) small Kindle with ads.
We have two centers in our community.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Gay men are not permitted to donate nor to vend blood or plasma.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I think it was July that the FDA issued the recommendation to fix that.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)because it's worth mention always but also because the Delta and the South in general has a disproportionate number of homeless and poorly domiciled LGBT youth, often rejected by religious families, who have very few social services to assist them. They are outside of even the plasma loop.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Talked down way too many friends of mine from roofs. Irritatingly, the only really comprehensive support system I know in MS for LGBT youth is a Catholic lay charity.
On the FDA thing, do you have any info on the status? I haven't heard anything since the announcement of the recommendation.