Comments on: Interns are ‘entitled to be paid’ says report | BBC http://leftnews.org/archives/2010/07/30/22418/ News And Views From The Left Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:50:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Wojtek http://leftnews.org/archives/2010/07/30/22418/comment-page-1/#comment-183983 Wojtek Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:46:08 +0000 http://leftnews.org/?p=22418#comment-183983 Not if they don't want to be paid -- will they force young people to accept money or have to quit working? What if they 'lose' their cheques? Is it morally repugnant for them to refuse someone's money if they don't feel they are entitled to it? All this will result in is young people being less able to acquire complex skills, or be hired for skilled work right after graduation. These are not minimum wage jobs they're interning for, but they don't possess the skills to do them, so they don't actually contribute enough to be worth the risk of hiring. You may or may not find this offensive, but your offense at it does not make it less true. If you charge more for something, people get less of it. So making people pay for something that was previously bartered (skills acquisition for minor work) will result in less of it being acquired. Less internship-like positions; Hardly a better state of affairs for young, unskilled, apprentices. Not if they don’t want to be paid — will they force young people to accept money or have to quit working? What if they ‘lose’ their cheques? Is it morally repugnant for them to refuse someone’s money if they don’t feel they are entitled to it?

All this will result in is young people being less able to acquire complex skills, or be hired for skilled work right after graduation. These are not minimum wage jobs they’re interning for, but they don’t possess the skills to do them, so they don’t actually contribute enough to be worth the risk of hiring. You may or may not find this offensive, but your offense at it does not make it less true.

If you charge more for something, people get less of it. So making people pay for something that was previously bartered (skills acquisition for minor work) will result in less of it being acquired. Less internship-like positions; Hardly a better state of affairs for young, unskilled, apprentices.

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