War on Interns

Making it illegal to work for free.

APRIL 7, 2010  wsj.com

The labor market is still in recession, but for younger workers it feels more like a depression. In the last year, the unemployment rate among workers age 20 to 24 has risen to almost 16%, and among teenagers to 26%.

You might therefore expect a federal effort to encourage employers to give unskilled youngsters  a chance. You would be wrong. The feds have instead decided to launch a campaign to crack down on unpaid internships that regulators claim violate minimum-wage laws.

Read the complete article.

ProfessorDad: Oh, Please! Not “youngster” – these people are adults. Treating them as large minors or kiddies does not advance the plea for government back-off.

Bureaucrats have already pegged young adults as helpless. Don’t confirm the government warp on reality: If government allows contracts, voting, and induction of your children into war at age 18 – the kiddies must be adult enough for college and internships.

Your children in college, are adults – all grown-up. Do yourself a favor – wise-up, and respect young adults to act like real grown-up people. No doubt, they will be complimentary, and respect you right back. Believe me, it is a very pleasant experience.

ProfessorDad: If you’re not planning, you’re not thinking.  If you’re not thinking, you’re in denial – and, as we all know, denial is in a far country.

Also, see Over Qualified, Unemployable – Solution?

Are You Middle Class? Maybe Not For Long

by David Calderwood

Many people write of the imminent destruction of the U.S. middle class (of which I consider myself a member) but few have explained specifically how this occurs. Understanding the mechanism seems important if I hope to avoid the fate of most of my peers.

An insight on this question came from an unexpected quarter.

A gentleman by the name of Fernando Aguirre, who posts on Internet forums and his blog as FerFAL, has written voluminously about his experiences as an Argentine citizen during and after the economic cataclysm that wracked his country in 2001. I first found a long forum post, and then a Google search of “FerFAL” revealed a larger web presence, including a recently published book.

Mr. Aguierre shares his thoughts on all sorts of related subjects, from food storage to guns to politics (he appears to really like Rep. Ron Paul). I personally found a great deal of value among what I’ve seen so far.

One brief passage struck me, however, because it related to the mechanism by which middle-class people become poor during an economic meltdown. The mechanism may be obvious, but it is important to see how theory actually worked in the real world.

Mr. Aguierre shares (in “Part IV”) how, while studying architecture following the 2001 crisis, a social studies teacher illustrated Argentina’s middle class’ slide into poverty. Quoting the teacher from memory, Mr. Aguierre writes,

“[Those in the] middle class suddenly discover that they are overqualified for the jobs they can find and have to settle for anything they can obtain, therefore unemployment sky rockets: too much to offer, too little demand. You see they prepare, study for a job they are not going to get. You kids, you are studying Architecture because you simply wish to do so. Only 3 or 4 percent of you will actually find a job related to architecture.”

We all sat there, letting it all sink in. After a few months, it all proved to be true. Even the amount of students that dropped out of college increased to at least 50%. They either [saw] no point in studying something that would not make much of a difference in their future salaries, had no money to keep themselves in college, or simply had to drop college to work and support their families.

This reads like a premonition. (more…)

PhD’s In Distress and the Unsustainable Cost of Education

[Note: this is an extract from longer post]

Here is an Email from “PhD In Distress” about overqualified candidates fresh out of college with nowhere to go, competing for jobs that essentially do not exist.

“PhD In Distress” writes:

Dear Mish,

I very much enjoyed your article today “How Being The Slightest Bit Overqualified Can Cost You A Job”. Although it seemed you and those giving comments seemed to focus on the overqualification of experienced workers, I would like to bring the plight of overqualified students (particularly PhD students) to your attention. I say this as a PhD science student myself.

In case you are not familiar, the “typical” PhD undergoes the following path: BS (usually adding significant debt) then PhD (most programs I know of skip masters level and pay about $20000/year and take 5-7 years) then postdoctoral experience (essentially you do the same work as your PhD for an additional 2-3 years in a different lab except you only make $35000/year) then you can attempt to get a job in either academia, industry or government.

I should also mention that student loans can be put on hold while in a PhD program but not during a postdoc.

The postdoctoral experience has not been traditionally necessary for my field to get a job in industry and I am attempting to do so sans postdoc as I have no academic inclinations.
(more…)