| Well, what about the folks who also couldn't afford to go to the school that the guy was going to? I mean, ultimately, the big obvious problem of capitalism is that the upkeep of labor is pushed onto the laborer... almost to the point where (to a very small extent) it could be possible that forcing labor to pay for its upkeep while exploiting it for profit is a defining characteristic of capitalism. While I find it to be an interesting discussion, unless you want to decry systematic problems, you're really not going far enough with your "what about". And we don't have to do everything within that system, do we? I mean, isn't direct action a good response to large, systematic problems? "Wait, what are you saying? Employment should be predicated on the employer giving the employee an adequate monetary reward in exchange for an adequate monetary reward for the employee? And if either side isn't getting their adequate monetary reward, the job shouldn't exist? This is a radical concept!" No, my point is that an internship is not a"job", interns shouldn't be treated like "employees", and that I was trading, based on my experience as a both a teacher and an expert in the content area for a personal reward of getting to teach for a bit. When internships are equivocal with jobs, they are exploitative. I agree with you and the linked article on that. What is not exploitative is when there is an actual exchange of, say, useful information and pedagogy in a system where you can't learn techniques without making stuff, especially in a way that privileged the growth of both a specific person and a larger workforce. |
