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A comment on Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You . Parent comment

Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by gabrielroth on Saturday September 05, 2009 @11:44AM (#806647)
Under the 13th Amendment, you don't have the right to sell yourself into slavery in the United States. That is, you can't sign a contract under which I pay your family $n and in return you work for me under conditions of slavery. Prohibitions on unpaid labor are an extension of this restriction on your freedom to enter into contract of your own free will.
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Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by cwan on Saturday September 05, 2009 @12:16PM (#806688)
How is an unpaid internship anywhere close to being slavery? The unpaid intern can walk away at any time. Further, it's the choice of the unpaid intern - not their family as to whether or not to accept the choice.
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Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by uopnuiyb on Saturday September 05, 2009 @12:34PM (#806715)
So in a recession if GM/Boeing/Walmart demand that all new hires work for no pay for their first year 'as intern trainees' that would be OK?

If they fire these people on day 364 and get new trainees next year - that would be ok?

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Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by cwan on Saturday September 05, 2009 @12:46PM (#806732)
Would it surprise you to know that Walmart pays its entry level workers significantly higher than minimum wage? It's relevant because it shows companies like Walmart/Boeing/GM are not price setters / don't have as much control as you presume. Further, the "race to the bottom" in wages is often not desirable or in the interests of a firm.

Sure I don't have a problem with the practice you describe, but I'm pretty sure they would being unable to find workers who care enough or are even productive and losing any good workers to others. The employment market doesn't operate in a vacuum.

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Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by defen on Saturday September 05, 2009 @01:17PM (#806777)
Why shouldn't they be allowed to? The hit to their reputation if they tried to pull a stunt like that would be far worse than the damage any law could do - they would never be able to hire new people again. You seem to presume that the law is the only thing keeping corporations in line.
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Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by apotheon on Sunday September 06, 2009 @03:06PM (#808040)
The truth, of course, is that the law is the only thing keeping corporations alive.
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Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by olefoo on Saturday September 05, 2009 @02:38PM (#806864)
That description may apply in theory, but in practice the 'employer' wields considerable power over the relationship by how they describe their assessment of the worker.
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Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by apotheon on Sunday September 06, 2009 @03:08PM (#808041)
To the extent that's true, paying the worker doesn't change that at all.
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Re:Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experie... by doki_pen on Saturday September 05, 2009 @12:52PM (#806747)
Freedom doesn't really come into the equation. Of course you can do work for free, that is your right. If your neighbor asked you to mow his lawn for free, there is no law to stop you from doing that work for him.

Corporations aren't people though and have different rights. They don't enjoy the right to employ people free of charge.

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