Take This Internship And Shove It Summary

The paper being responded to is, “Take This Internship and Shove It” by Anya Kamenetz. It is a paper made to address the problems what internships cause. She states that internship is bad for the labor market because of unpaid work they do. The main problem that the author is addressing is the problems that internships cause. She states that her argument is that internship is bad for the labor market and individual careers. She uses several points to back up her argument. The first point she use is the opportunity costs of being an intern. She states that being an intern means lost wages and living expenses to pay which most students can’t do. They would have to go further into debt and work unpaid in an internship. The second point is that internships is that unpaid internships are not jobs, only simulations and would not prepare you for a real job. She states having a job waiting tables is boring, it teaches you the routine of obligation, rewarded by external rewards. Internships are also artificially fun, which will disappoint them when they expect working will be fun.

She states that internships contribute $124 million yearly to the welfare of corporate America, while only being paid $5.15 an hour. She also states that internships create an oversupply of people who are willing to work for low wages, or practically nothing at all. She compares interns to illegal immigrants because both keep wages down and patch up gaps caused by job cuts. It also causes people who are rich enough to afford internships to have a foot in the door. She also states that internships help find jobs faster but didn’t increase confidence that their jobs are a good