1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Trust me, I def know and agree with the exploitation of unpaid positions/internships/whatever too. I went on a very long rant about it not long ago, in fact, which was the most recent of many. There's definitely been a shift from like.. you used to get a college degree, ideally with some community service and a good GPA, and have a decent job working from the base up. Yay! Now it's you need a college degree, community service, a good GPA, /AND/ an internship while in school just to be competitive when you graduate. It's ridiculous and I think it's a huge contribution to why our generation is so stressed.

Like Chel said though, I still see a lot of people who are adamantly against minimum wage jobs while in school or just out of it, or who are uninterested in interning at all to "pay their dues," as it were. On the one hand, isn't it reasonable to be expected to work your way up? On the other hand, you have to support yourself damnit! I get both sides, completely.

Our shit economy has guaranteed that, with fewer jobs, there's much higher competition for work and thus for experience as well, which is most of what allows that abuse to exist. It's fucked up and I will never say anything positive about the unpaid bullshit that they call internships these days. Like I said, it's a large contributor, /especially/ to recent graduates in the last, idk, 5 years or so, I'd guess? There's no good solution to it that I can see. But given that the rate of pay has declined in general (most positions making less and less money for equivalent work compared with previous generations), our generation is no longer looking to jump into an equivalent position but equivalent pay and that's.. idk. Again, what constitutes entitlement? I think my definition is a lot more strict than most peoples. No, I don't think everyone expects unicorns, but a recent survey showed that, for the first time, more school kids would rather be famous than be President. That's a real thing.

I wonder how much of what we believe - myself included - is a result of our exposure to a limited group rather than to the stats. Chel's probs better for that than I am, since I don't have access to the academic databases and relevant journals anymore, alas. I'd be curious to know.