The staff were pretty kind all around, facility was clean.

The dystopian aspect was how many people I saw denied, because they had donated yesterday. You can give twice a week, but have to wait a day in between. I saw at least four or five people get turned away, and they were all pretty upset. The line was extremely long - there are tons of people desperate enough to wait in line for hours to go through the painful process of having their blood sapped out.

I also got a preloaded card as my payment, which has a ton of fees associated with it - I’ll get charged if I use it at an atm or check the balance. I know these cash cards are often also used to pay people who work at like McDonald’s - it just seems like so much of the US is designed to nickel and dime the shit out of the poor.

  • Carmakazi@lemmy.world
    38·
    6 days ago

    Is that not for health reasons? Donating twice in a row like that seems like it would take a real toll on you.

    I don’t know why that’s dystopian, if anything what’s dystopian is that people are relying on doing this to support themselves at all.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.worldOP
      48·
      6 days ago

      Yeah - that’s what I found dystopian about it. That someone would be desperate enough to come back the next day to try again - it’s not even $50.

      • Carmakazi@lemmy.world
        3·
        6 days ago

        I was reading it like the big bad government was preventing us from draining ourselves however we please for personal profit, and that’s a bad thing. I am not feeling well and my reading comprehension is clearly lacking.

    • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
      11·
      6 days ago

      You’re right. But the payment card is definitely dystopian and designed to maximize fees from the users for every aspect. It should be required by law that these businesses give alternative options for receiving payments, or remove any sort of fees.

    • Cheems@lemmy.world
      3·
      5 days ago

      I did it twice a week the entire time I was in college. Yes, it very much does take a toll on you.

  • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
    4·
    4 days ago

    I used to sell plasma. I was already left wing and aware of American desperation, but that was about the bleakest shit I’ve seen. Ive been to chemo wards that are upbeat compared to it.

  • plz1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    5 days ago

    Getting charged to check the balance seems…not legal? I dunno, probably not. Some politician that also owns a payday lending company would probably ensure that’s legal.

    • T156@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      5 days ago

      Might be because the ATM doesn’t belong to the bank, so it charges non-partner bank fees, as opposed to the card itself charging people to look at the balance?

      • plz1@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        5 days ago

        Oh, I assumed this meant checking balance on a web site. Which should absolutely be free.

  • JcbAzPx@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    6 days ago

    This isn’t new. Back when I gave plasma (almost 20 years now, damn) the two companies that did it here had to share donor lists to keep people from doubling up by going to both. Also, there were always large rocks in the bathroom from smaller people trying to get to the higher weight range to make more money.

  • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 days ago

    I drive Uber and see this shit and so much more all the time. It’s such a bleak lens into how people are being forced to get by (read: just baaaaaarely). It’s really, really wild out there.

  • glimse@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 days ago

    I’ve never heard of McDonald’s employees getting paid in preloaded cards, is that true? I know plenty of people do it to avoid taxes but McDonald’s is a major employer and that’s pretty damn illegal