No, I think unpaid internships simply reflect the underlying situation and position of people. Restricting who can get the internships or how much those jobs have to pay will have less than a drop in the bucket's effect on the underlying problem of wealth inequality.

If I sum up the position, it sounds to me like "I don't want to see people working for $0, or only the rich to have the opportunity to work for $0, so I will require the job to pay $15/hr". Well, you didn't solve the problem that people are willing to work for $0 with that solution.

Letting people offer what they want, on both sides, (I believe) is the freest way to have people decide and achieve what they want, as long as basic protections for safety, hours, conditions are met.

By that logic, universities are a big contributor to ongoing economic inequality. You spend 2-4 years (at least, more if you want a post-grad) not earning any money, and in fact paying money to get the credentials needed to eventually become gainfully employed.

Internships & apprenticeships serve the same educational function of universities, except you don't have to pay money to get that experience.

In order to be consistent, either we force universities to pay its students, or at the very least encourage companies to start charging interns for the privilege of an internship. Neither option is reasonable.

> Neither option is reasonable.

Why not? Free tuition + living stipend seems like a perfectly reasonable way to achieve a productive, well-educated workforce to me.