Members of the decadent nouveau riche of Shenzhen in South China have provoked online outrage by taking up breast-milk consumption as a high-status health treatment. According to sources quoted in the Times of India, agencies recruit wet nurses from among recent mothers and pay them $2,000-$4,000 to allow rich people to nurse from their breasts,… READ THE REST
You’d figure people would be happy to take a rich person’s money in exchange for an otherwise worthless bodily fluid.
4 Likes
I wonder how the agencies’ quality control standards are… I think that the joke would be on you if you picked up something nasty while conspicuously consuming dubiously sourced breast milk…
2 Likes
There’s probably some whiny larva in the picture who doesn’t think that the fluid is ‘otherwise worthless’; but there probably will be change left over from 2-4k once you buy some formula.
Exploiting economic power in such intimately biological ways always seems to cause a greater affective stir; but I suspect(unfortunately) that this probably doesn’t even rank on the list of ‘genuinely ghastly outcomes upon the poor for the betterment of the rich’.
3 Likes
I clicked on the link and got a pop-up ad for “Indian Brides”. :-/
After the stupid eyeball licking hoax about Japan (from China?), my guard instantly goes up when I hear tales of nation specific debauchery.
This being said, it’s futbol season, so anything is possible.
1 Like
I call fake. Somebody saw a Chappelle Show episode once: http://vimeo.com/20658199
Oh, the eyeball thing was a hoax? I sure hope so, still ewwwwing over that one.
It’s not a dietary choice, it’s a lifestyle.
Some Gilded Age tycoon did that also. JP Morgan? Carnegi?
1 Like
Hey, compared to good old Radithor(of “The Radium Water Worked Fine until His Jaw Came Off” fame), I suspect it was a wholly salubrious choice!
My capitalist point of view thinks it’s fine for a woman to sell whatever she can.
My socialist point of view thinks the conspicuous consumption is disgustingly decadent and unnecessary.
My scientific skeptic point of view is shaking his head at the unliklihood that this would ever benefit the health of the average adult, and wishes more people would actually do some good research before deciding they need to take a supplement of any kind. (He’s also raging at TCM practitioners and users for not seeing past their naturalistic fallacies and biases favoring antiquity)
4 Likes
Quality control? It’s China.
1 Like
i don’t think its a China problem as it is a ‘rich people’ problem, as someone else said - this is pretty low down on the scale of utterly abhuman indulgent sophism that the wealthy get up to when they are taking a day off from brutally oppressing their serfs.
geesus, im getting more anarchistic as i get older 
1 Like
Actually, wasn’t it John D. Rockefeller in his last days?
It´s not breastmilk, but still feels appropriate.
2 Likes
I’m unsure of how sophism fits into this. While there is a claim of rich people paying for the benefits of breastmilk, I don’t see how that translates into charging for an education, or using deceptive and fallacious rhetorical methods to bring an audience to the side of the breastmilk buyers.
I’m just curious as to how you come to the conclusion that sophistry is employed. I don’t mean to be offensive or degrading in any way. Be assured that I do understand, and mostly agree with the disgust you express about the inappropriateness of breastfeeding adults for money when it can be put to better use feeding infants.
1 Like
There’s probably some whiny larva in the picture who doesn’t think that the fluid is ‘otherwise worthless’; but there probably will be change left over from 2-4k once you buy some formula.
Luckily breast milk production increases according to demand- most women would probably be able to produce enough to feed their baby as well as couple of jaded millionaires. Just ask anyone who’s breastfed twins or triplets.
As for the ‘otherwise worthless’ status, the Guangzhou breast milk bank might disagree…
Considering the sky-rocketing prices for formula, it’s not quite worthless.
