Renewable Revolution

Literal Vampire Capitalism.

Harvesting the Blood of America’s Poor: The Latest Stage of Capitalism

Blood has become big business in the United States and there is no shortage of corporations ready to exploit America’s most vulnerable populations in order to get a piece of the pie.

Yep.

During a brief period in my youth (1970-1972), I knew some people that made some extra money selling their blood. I think they could get as much as $25 for a pint. That was a nice amount of cash back then. I could never do it because my dad was a carrier of Hepatitis (brought back from his Korean War experience before Hepatitis had any different letter versions), which my younger sister and myself both contracted around 1952.

She had a mild case. I was hospitalized for a week where they fed me almost pure sugar everything for the whole time. You would think that a 6 year old kid would enjoy the experience of lots of sweets to eat, but when you have Hepatitis (I guess it was Hepatitis A), you feel dizzy and nauseous most of the time. I had no appetite and I had to be "supervised" by a nurse who made sure I would eat the pudding stuff they wanted me to eat frequently.

The only good part is that, since my week or so in the Hospital was in December, I got a lot of toys for Christmas .

I was told later on that I could never donate (or sell) my blood, so that was that. These people selling their blood had a system of going to different blood banks so they could sell more often (Blood banks didn't allow you to sell blood more often than some period of days or weeks I don't remember right now). The universal blood type people (Type O) were always in demand; A+ blood types like mine, not so much.

As you know, I got fired from the Air Taxi Pilot job I had for trying to organize a union. In 1970, Unemployment Compensation was $92 a month in Puerto Rico. I had to go to a government office twice a month to collect a $46 check. Since I didn't have a bank account, I had to pay some check cashing con artist outside the office a dollar (He would take my check and give me $45).

As a pilot I had been making $550 a month, and had even gotten up to $800 a month during my brief time as Chief Pilot. For a newly married couple, $92 a month was not enough to live on. We had to eat at my wife's parents' house. Within two or three months we had to move out of our rented apartment to my parents' house. 👎

I actually envied those who could sell blood back then. Being out of a job can do that to a person. I know exactly where those poor folks mentioned in the article are coming from. I don't know if you considered selling blood when you lived in that boat you wrote about a long time ago, but I would certainly understand if you did. We all have to do what we can to survive.