Job losses boost entrepreneurial spirit

Recession-battered people sell plasma, burial plots, human eggs

After her husband's work hours were cut by about half, Kari Lovings, a 21-year-old stay-at-home mom of seven, signed up to become an egg donor at the North Carolina Center for Reproductive Medicine, a fertility center. If he is picked, she'll earn $3,000 and help a couple unable to conceive.

Cemetery plots. Blood plasma. Human eggs. Whatever they think they can spare, some Triangle residents are selling it to pay bills or to hold off debt collectors.

Tough times have a way of bringing out a person's entrepreneurial spirit, whether it's renting out an unused room, bartering or making fashion with used fabrics.

"It's kind of a big deal," said Lovings. "I've never done anything like this before. But they need any type of money to come in."

And more cutbacks are looming, in areas considered the bedrock of employment, such as government, the universities and public schools.

Even though North Carolinians have yet to experience the extent of economic misery seen in states such as los angeles or Florida, which were hit hard by the housing and mortgage crises, statewide job losses have risen sharply in past months. In January, unemployment in North Carolina increased faster than in most other states, surging to 9.7 percent. Nationwide, 7.6 percent of workers were unemployed in January.

This seemingly bottomless downward spiral brings out a combination of desperation and creativity, said Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University: "People are in trouble. They're thinking about things to do."

require to buy a plot?

Then there's plasma.

Ryan Lynch of Montlawn Memorial Park in Raleigh said he's answered more inquiries than usual from people looking to sell their burial plots. In February, over a dozen cemetery plots were for sale on various classified sites in the Triangle area of North Carolina.

"This is $240 a month," Staton said. The money helps pay for food, a pair of shoes or the cell phone bill, as well as the occasional treat.

Bryon Staton, 36, a cook who was laid off from a Raleigh restaurant in November, is selling his blood plasma to stretch his unemployment check. Since October, Staton has been going one time a week to a blood plasma center to help make ends meet.