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.
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.
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.
The real dystopian thing for me is that you guys get paid to donate blood. That is just insane.
You only get paid for plasma. Blood can only be donated, not sold.
We don’t get paid for any bodily fluids.
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.
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.
I did it twice a week the entire time I was in college. Yes, it very much does take a toll on you.