Crémieux Profile picture
Aug 21, 2024 14 tweets 5 min read Read on X
In the U.S., you are legally permitted to sell your blood plasma for money, but it's called "donation".

In recent years, the numbers of places set up for donations has skyrocketed, and the amount they're compensating donors has followed suit.

Let's dig in. Image
Most of the visitors to these donation centers are highly local (A)

People are also more likely to visit donation centers in census block groups (CBGs) that are marked by poverty (B)

Why? Image
In surveys, donating plasma is predicted by being poor, Black, male, married, having kids, being a student, etc.

In short, people who could really use an extra $150 twice a week for a minimal inconvenience are more likely to donate. Image
We know this is true because we also have survey data indicating people's stated reasons for donating. Few people are donating altruistically. The top categories by far are about money!

Take a look: Image
Now, before getting to the juicy result, I want to show one more thing: the impact of COVID stimulus checks on plasma donations.

When the checks went out, the number of visits to plasma donation centers cratered. Donations plummeted because people had the cash they needed. Image
Now here's the kicker: When plasma donation centers open up, local inquiries into predatory payday and installment loans falls off.

People are seeking credit and donating blood might be how they get it. Image
If we stratify these trends by age, we see that those with ages less than or equal to 35 - the less well-established - are the ones deciding to use blood plasma donations to offset the need for quick, dangerously high-interest cash, not those greater than 35 years old. Image
When you look at payday transactions rather than inquiries alone, you get the same picture, albeit with more noise.

Young people really do seem to be defraying the need for credit by selling (sorry, donating!) their blood plasma.Image
The reasons people sell their are also, evidently, not just to cover essentials.

One of the clearest-cut impacts is that entertainment establishments see an increase in visits after blood plasma donation centers open up. Image
That last part clarifies something: people would prefer not to get risky, high-interest loans, and they really want a little bit of extra cash. So while they will seek out those loans if push comes to shove, they're more likely to frivolously pursue blood donation.
And that's good! We need blood plasma donations, so if paying people a bit of money makes that possible, so be it.

If we take away that possibility, we can also see that it would make people's lives worse.

How far can we take this? Maybe we can learn from Iran.
In the U.S., about 0.5-1% of the federal budget goes to dialysis:

In Iran, there is a legal, regulated market in selling kidneys and it's such a good deal that the government even pays for the operations. It beats paying for dialysis!
Image
People are more than willing to sell their bodies in different ways that help their fellow citizens, from selling their blood plasma to pawning off a kidney.

Given so many people want to do that, and so many people would benefit from it, the question is, why not?
Frankly, I think we should just do it. The blood plasma donation model has been such a success and it's more than evident that organ payments could be too.

Worried about corruption? Then regulate it well!

Sources:



academic.oup.com/rfs/article-ab…
pbs.org/newshour/show/…

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More from @cremieuxrecueil

Jul 12
This is not true, but remember:

Premodern society was hyper-violent by modern standards.

Almost half the fighting-aged males in late Neolithic Europe showed skeletal evidence of violence and at least 10% died from it.

For comparison, the 2022 U.S. homicide rate was 7.5/100k. Image
This isn't even the most violent prehistoric society, it's one of the more peaceful ones known. Image
Communist states have killed a lot of people historically, but they had nothing on non-state societies.

I cannot recommend trying out any sort of statelessness, let alone communism.

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Jul 11
There is no reason to keep pit bull type dogs legal, but there is plenty of reason to ban them.

They are extremely disproportionately likely to bite and to kill. Keeping them around serves no purpose. Image
Pit bull owners are disproportionately likely to be mentally ill, to have criminal records, to be low-income and poorly-educated, etc.

But this doesn't explain the breed's issues. Even when they were not the premiere fighters, they dominated injury stats

It's also worth noting that, despite not being the most common type of dog in New York City, pit bulls still commit the largest share of the dog bites: Image
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Jul 10
Though the policy is harmful, the overwhelming majority of Americans support capping rent increases.

Americans overwhelmingly support many bad policies🧵 Image
Americans strongly support raising the minimum wage considerably. Image
In earlier years, support for tariffs was higher.

Now it's still quite high, and if you ask the question in certain ways support goes up or down.

Ask about China and you get majority support. Image
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Jul 9
The Atlantic was once a credible news outlet.

One of their best pieces came out 99 years ago, written by "A Woman Resident in Russia".

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Let's read about the Soviets ruining marriage🧵Image
"To clear the family out of the accumulated dust of the ages we had to give it a good shakeup, and we did."

Russia boasted it had no illegitimate children. True. They eliminated the "illegitimate" category. Image
"Men took to changing wives" and 300,000 abandoned children resulted. Image
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Jul 2
I've seen people mentioning that Europe's heat-related death issue is larger than American gun violence—true!

But people neglect saying how many heat-related deaths America has.

Approximately 1% of what Europe does even though America is hotter and Americans are less healthy! Image
Those factors mean Americans are more at-risk for heat-related deaths, even after accounting for Europe being a little older than America.

So let's be clear:

Europeans die from heat at relatively high rates; Americans survive it with technology. Image
Image
What technology?

It's the terraforming technology of air conditioning.

Install A/C and the heat-related deaths will mostly disappear, if Europe can keep their grid operational. Image
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Jul 2
What happens when scholars get canceled?

They end up publishing fewer papers and they receive fewer citations.

In other words, scientific productivity falls🧵 Image
Tons of scholars have been cancelled in recent years.

That is, they've received professional backlash for expressing views that people deem "controversial, unpopular, or misaligned with prevailing norms." Image
Cancellations happen outside of academia, but it's very bad in it.

Large portions of the academy dislike the freedom of speech. Many of those free speech opponents have high agency and the clout to cause material harm to people they dislike = particularly bad cancel culture. Image
Read 13 tweets

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