This makes a twisted sort of sense to me.

[rivka]

"Come back when you're dying:" the commodification of AIDS among California's urban poor.

Unlike their middle-class counterparts, it became clear through the course of our study that many participating couples were living in a world in which a positive HIV antibody test or an AIDS diagnosis could result in an improved quality of life by allowing for increased access to Supplemental Security Income, subsidized housing, food and services. This situation is in part a consequence of recent policy decisions related to the "War on Drugs" and welfare reform. These policies have contributed to the creation of an economy of poverty in which the sick, needy, and addicted must compete against each other for scarce resources. Within such an economy, an HIV or AIDS diagnosis may actually operate as a commodity.

Comments

[almeda.livejournal.com]

In a complex system, a single change of policy or behavior can cascade to all kinds of unintended side-effects that are completely logical, and completely invisible to the initiator of the change until someone else looks for them.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

I understand how this happened, but that doesn't make it any less warped.

-J

[scherazade.livejournal.com]

It's sad...and tragic..
still, it happens in all spectra of society I think.. the fight for something worse, which persevely makes life much better.