3 ms·
It's not just HIV. It's any infectious disease (there is a thick book of reasons to disallow a donation). The problem is that these infectious diseases are soci
by niels_olson 12y ago
It's not just HIV. It's any infectious disease (there is a thick book of reasons to disallow a donation). The problem is that these infectious diseases are socially disruptive, therefore these folk, unfortunately, tend to have less marginal income. Therefore, they are exactly the people who would respond to a small monetary incentive. This has been studied. If anyone is acutely aware of the problem, it's blood banks. So this issue is revisited routinely. Here is a recent review on the topic:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847338/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847338/
- joezydeco 12y agoI'm advocating tax deductions as an incentive. If I give $350 in cash to the American Red Cross, I can take that charitable deduction from my annual filing. If I donate a unit of blood that gives ARC $350 in products, that's not deductible. The incentive side steps the donor-with-marginal-income problem, unless I'm missing something.
- eru 12y agoThat's a clever way to pay richer people progressively more for their blood.
- zaroth 12y agoIRS Pub 526 on Charitable Contributions, Page 2: Not Deductible As Charitable Contributions: Cost of raffle, bingo, or lottery tickets Dues, fees, or bills paid to ... Tuition Value of your time or services *Value of blood given to a blood bank* It's amazing how many details the IRS pubs cover. I like your proposal though.