Only the rich can afford to work

There an article in yesterday’s NY Times about international internships:

Intrax’s internship programs cost from around $5,600 to $7,900. That includes placement, visa help, housing, a global skills training course, cultural activities, insurance and individual support, he said. Airfare is extra, and very rarely are students paid. “Some companies offer a stipend; we don’t arrange that,” Mr. Roma said.

Karl Marx predicted this with his famous line. In fact, it’s worth repeating the whole paragraph:

In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!

Today, those with no useful skills happily collect welfare, while for the rich, labor is not about making money but about “life’s prime want” which they want so badly that they are willing to pay more money for the opportunity to work for two months than most poor people in the world earn in a year.

Karl Marx was wrong in predicting the end of the bourgeoisie—in fact, only the bourgeoisie get to experience the joy of self-actualizing work—but he deserves much credit for getting some of it right. The future is a very hard thing to predict.

Comments

[Anonymous]

"only the bourgeoisie get to experience the joy of self-actualizing work"

As a downwardly mobile mid-20s male, yep.

[Peter A]

Good for you for actually trying to read Marx in context. "Marxism" as practiced in the USSR, China or as understood by lefty Western academics is based on a selective reading of Marx, and lots of Leninist overlay. If you're going to declare Marx off limits because Communism was evil you may as well throw out Hegel and Plato as well.

[Alex]

It is the logical consequence of social democracy: the middle class is leeched both by the poor (on whatever form of welfare) and the rich (who establish monopolies and barriers to entry to preserve their status). Ultimately the rope breaks (the middle class had enough or has become poor) and society collapses.

90% of libertarian sympathizers are young nerdy Whites. Which is rational: libertarianism is nothing more than an union to protect the interests of the working beta providers.

Economics do not exist. It is a false science. Everything is a matter or biology and private interests. Money serves them, not the contrary.

[asdf]

They are paying money to be nytimes interns because they hope to get nytimes jobs. Those jobs are very interesting, present lots of opportunities for growth and social cred, and pay six figures once you get a real job (and more if you parley it into a book deal).

Instead of seeing it as paying to work see it as investing in future earnings.

[jr gorilla]

"Instead of seeing it as paying to work see it as investing in future earnings."

Isn't that what people say about $55,000 a year liberal arts degrees, with lots of opportunities for personal growth and social cred?

[HS: That's what the middle class are suckered into believing. The elite know that a real investment also involves private elementary and high school, and internships, and graduate school.]

[asdf]

When I interned in IB I was paid, but I was certainly underpaid on an hourly basis (few jobs pay well when your working 80 hour weeks). I did it for the opportunity, as a large % of people who intern get full time offers (which I did).

[Charles Winthrop Worthington IV]

"Yale or fail."

[Jon]

The requirement for unpaid internships seem to be more prevalent in some professions than others.

I know a bunch of people who graduated in media and their careers in that field basically hit a brick wall after graduation.

The only options were either to go back and do a masters which was unfunded
or to take an unpaid internship in London which basically involved being a "runner" and making everyone coffee all day with only a slim chance of getting a "real" job out of it.

Of course about 50% of them had started studying media with the intention of getting a job teaching it after graduation, it doesn't take a genius to see how that pyramid scheme will fall apart.

On the other hand I taught myself to program PHP at 16 and took courses in Computer Science / IT and I had no lack of local companies willing to pay me a wage (a crap one, but still a wage) to work with them during school holidays.

[Dave]

Oh, the joy of positional goods. Who would have known that a rewarding job would have become one? The future will certainly be interesting, if painful. Unfortunately for Marx and Hegel I don't see the end of history coming about anytime soon. It's time to stop worrying about teleology and start worrying about how to eat. It's time for the middle class to return to its peasant roots.

[hiloon]

All is lost.