Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
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Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#2A strange fact popped into my mind, after reading this story and remembering some comments on the "Turing deserves an apology" story.
Many people will say that two consenting adults have the right to do whatever they want in the privacy of their own bedroom. As soon as the act those adults want to do becomes nonsexual (e.g. an unpaid internship, unlicensed medicine), that principle goes out the window.
Very confusing.
Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#3[deleted]
Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#4So call it volunteering? Surely volunteers are not illegal yet.
Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#5They're the same issues with minimum wage. The "minimum wage brings minimum jobs" because it hurts those with the least experience the most (http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/2009/08/new-video-minim...). The irony is that people who call themselves advocates for the poor pushing for increasingly higher minimum wages actually hurt the poor with these policies.
Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#6The true crime is that more companies are not offering minimum wage internships. I for one, would be happy to recruit smart kids from college, and spend ten or twenty hours a week providing them with direction. I know the software company I work for could utilize their talent for brute-force work like dependency tracking in our code base, testing, build automation, documentation, etc.
I think more small and medium sized companies should provide (paid) internships.
Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#7It may not be a popular opinion but I agree with the US gov on this one. Everyone wants something for free.
However, I think the big problem is how the compensation is valued. If the experience gained by the intern is more valuable than minimum wage, then yes, the law seems broken. However for every job that would actually provide meaningful experience and benefit the intern there are probably many other internships that provide very little if any benefit to the intern. Since the gov really has no easy way of measuring the experience / networking compensation, if they attempted to, it would be to the detriment of the mojority of iterns, who would end up working for free for very little if any benefit.
I don't have any numbers to back up my claim of non-beneficial v.s. beneficial free internships. However, I also don't have anything to gain either way and it's just my impartial gut feeling that any system that tried to solve his problem would create more problems for the majority of these free interns, or end up costing tax payer's a lot to police the practice.
Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#8He'd lose a little money, but couldn't he pay them minimum wage and then charge them $7/hour for the training he's giving them(just like the martial arts schools)?
Also, if his company is him and a bunch of interns, who's going to sue him?
Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#9It may not be a popular opinion but I agree with the US gov on this one. Everyone wants something for free. However, I think the big problem is how the compensation is valued. If the experience gained by the intern is more valuable than minimum wage, then yes, the law seems broken. However for every job that would actually provide meaningful experience and benefit the intern there are probably many other internships…
You haven't explained why you agree with the US government on this one (though it's not just the US government). Value is subjective - so in the end, why would we rely on the government to establish value in the first place?
Are you saying that instead of letting people make their own choices at an individual level as to whether or not the experience is of value, it's better for government to just ban the choice altogether?
Re: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You
#10[deleted]
I think his argument is that it would not be a waste of time for the intern who would gain some experience, skills and resume building if they had nothing better to do. However the profits for his business would not be enough to justify minimum wage. I don't think his net worth is relevant to the argument.
Regardless I agree with the gov, which I stated in a previous reply.