You're fixating on the word "wealthy" (indeed a bad word choice) and missing the point. - The only people who can afford to spend months in an unpaid internship are people who come from a family that's well-off enough that the person doesn't need a paycheck to feed and house themself. Poor people literally can't afford to not have a paycheck coming in.
This takes many forms. A recurrent one is for the take place right out of college (or while still in it!), taking advantage of the naïveté of those just entering the job market, and often as a precondition to access any kind of paid job some months later. The employer gets free qualified labor, the intern eat lots of ramen… families put up with it as a natural extension of paying for college, for a few more months… it’s exploitation pure and simple.
A “joke” I’ve heard several times over the years (not recently, though) summarizes the level of assholery that’s going on (warning: some may find this offensive)
::: spoiler “joke”
“it is better to have an intern than a slave, because you don’t need to feed, house our clothe the intern”…
:::
i dare someone to play devil's advocate and pretend that's funny
You're fixating on the word "wealthy" (indeed a bad word choice) and missing the point. - The only people who can afford to spend months in an unpaid internship are people who come from a family that's well-off enough that the person doesn't need a paycheck to feed and house themself. Poor people literally can't afford to not have a paycheck coming in.
This takes many forms. A recurrent one is for the take place right out of college (or while still in it!), taking advantage of the naïveté of those just entering the job market, and often as a precondition to access any kind of paid job some months later. The employer gets free qualified labor, the intern eat lots of ramen… families put up with it as a natural extension of paying for college, for a few more months… it’s exploitation pure and simple.
A “joke” I’ve heard several times over the years (not recently, though) summarizes the level of assholery that’s going on (warning: some may find this offensive)
::: spoiler “joke” “it is better to have an intern than a slave, because you don’t need to feed, house our clothe the intern”… :::
i dare someone to play devil's advocate and pretend that's funny