Not the only ungrateful punk out there

June 3, 2006 | Category: Journalism School, Media

Dubious as it may be to claim vindication for one’s opinions just because they appear in the New York Times, that’s exactly what I’m going to do here:

A recent graduate of the journalist factory I attend just altered all of us to an op-ed piece in Times by Anya Kamenetz (a young Village Voice columnist I’ve never read before), on the unpaid internship and the various reasons why it needs to be eradicated.

Kamenetz’s op-ed is better researched, and probably more thoughtful, than the rant I posted on the same topic a month ago. Curiously, her headline–”Take this Internship and Shove It”–is the same as mine was, minus the “Right Up Your Ass.” Karenetz does a nice job articulating the “more subtle effects” of the unpaid internship on the economy as a whole (a topic that I, in my haze of indignation, neglected almost completely):

In an information economy, productivity is based on the best people finding the jobs best suited for their talents, and interns interfere with this cultural capitalism. They fly in the face of meritocracy — you must be rich enough to work without pay to get your foot in the door. And they enhance the power of social connections over ability to match people with desirable careers. A 2004 study of business graduates at a large mid-Atlantic university found that the completion of an internship helped people find jobs faster but didn’t increase their confidence that those jobs were a good fit.

(How much worse are the socioeconomics of this equation for journalism? Public watchdog? Blue collar boys with pen and notebook sticking it to the Man? Not so much anymore.)

She also points out an interesting labor statistic: Less than 5% of “young workers” (age range undefined) in the US hold a union card, compared to the overall national rate of 12.5%. “How,” she asks, “are twentysomethings ever going to win back health benefits and pension plans when they learn to be grateful to work for nothing?”

In the end, Kamenetz’s swipe at the institution feels limp-wristed, a little too plaintive. But the point is the same: The unpaid internship is a cancer of the American economy that should be subjected to repeated rounds of unrepentant chemotherapy.

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About the Author

Josh Chin is a freelance journalist based in Beijing. He also once worked as a sous chef in a French restaurant in San Francisco. Neither job has been good for his health.