Paying To Work: Worse Than Unpaid Internships

From Do You Want An Internship? It'll Cost You
By SUE SHELLENBARGER, JANUARY 28, 2009..

"Faced with a dismal market for college summer internships, a growing number of anxious parents are pitching in to help -- by buying their kids a foot in the door.

Some are paying for-profit companies to place their college students in internships that are mostly unpaid. Others are hiring marketing consultants to create direct-mail campaigns promoting their children's workplace potential. Still other parents are buying internships outright in online charity auctions.

Even as the economy slows, internship-placement programs are seeing demand rise by 15% to 25% over a year ago. Critics of the programs say they deepen the divide between the haves and have-nots by giving students from more affluent families an advantage."

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plutocracy |ploōˈtäkrəsē|

noun (pl. -cies)
government by the wealthy.
• a country or society governed in this way.
• an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.

DERIVATIVES
plutocratic |ˌploōtəˈkratik| adjective
plutocratically |ˌploōtəˈkratiklē| adverb

ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Greek ploutokratia, from ploutos ‘wealth’ + kratos ‘strength, authority.’

USAGE See usage at aristocracy.

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From Opportunity for Sale
Psst! Wanna buy an internship?
By Timothy Noah, Jan. 28, 2009..

"It's a huge misconception to say this is a program for rich kids," Eric Lochtefeld, CEO of University of Dreams, told the Journal. "The average student comes from the middle class, and their parents dig deep." To whatever extent that were true, inegalitarianism would shade into encyclopedia-salesman-style exploitation. The company "has begun funding scholarships and grants for low-income applicants," the Journal reports. But that merely lowers the price of opportunity. Whoever said a summer internship was something you had to pay for? The idea of getting a job is that they're supposed to pay you.

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Why is this happening?

Is it merely the result of unregulated market trends
or could many people actually be losing their minds?

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From Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup
Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:15pm GMT..

"We went and looked at supermarket samples where high fructose corn syrup was the first or second ingredient on the label," he said. These 55 different foods included barbecue sauce, jam, yogurt and chocolate syrup.

"We found about one out of three had mercury above the detection limit," Wallinga said.

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We already know that the mercury levels in fish are at an all time high
because of environmental deregulations under Bush.

Interesting how this story about mercury in common products such as soda pop
comes out just as soon as Bush leaves office..

Mercury poisoning can result in insanity
as well as a permanent reduction of your IQ,
depending on how much mercury you've been exposed to.

I would be willing to bet
that those who are paying money to work at for-profit companies
are actually exhibiting symptoms of mercury poisoning,
in addition to being filthy rich.

History has shown us beyond any reasonable doubt
that power coupled with insanity
can be a very destructive combination.

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The government needs to intervene on this practice.

This practice of paying to work is much worse
than sweatshop slave labor or even prostitution.

What are your thoughts?

(You may need to have your mercury levels tested.)