As America and the Entire Industrialized World dips into the second act of our 21st Century Greatest Depression, workers and employers are developing new skills to cope with the complete lack of money. In the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office, for example, about a hundred actual qualified lawyers have worked in the “reserve” program, meaning that they work full-time and prosecute cases and shuffle papers for 10 hours a day like any paid city attorney, minus the “pay” part. Los Angeles is one of the richest cities in the world, with 45 known billionaires and 268,000 millionaires — more millionaires than anywhere else in the nation, and America has the most millionaires of any nation on Earth. Anyway, it’s a hot new trend, having degreed professionals work full-time without any pay at all. Because there are no jobs! And the governments are all broke, because the billionaires and millionaires don’t pay any taxes. No wonder rich people love America so much, as a legal address!
Ashley St. Johns-Jacobs, 40, typically rises before 5 a.m. to get to her job at the Los Angeles city attorney’s office by 8 a.m. After a full day prosecuting misdemeanors, she often brings work home. What she doesn’t bring home is a paycheck. With no position open, she has been working as an unpaid intern for nearly a year in hopes of eventually getting hired when a job opens up ….
Meet the new interns. With the unemployment rate still high and the economy not creating nearly enough jobs to put the nation’s 13.7 million unemployed back to work, seasoned workers like St. Johns-Jacobs are doing what was once unthinkable: working for free.
And there are no Official Records for such things, so knowing the scope of the “work a professional job without wages” phenomenon is limited to anecdotal evidence and Craigslist ads and Facebook suicide updates and other informational tools of our era. But we will add that the number of job-applicant emails to Wonkette has risen to a pretty shocking level in the past three months. Times are awful. [LA Times via Wonkette operative chascates]
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The GOP has repealed the 13th Amendment by stealth.
Interns of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your . . . let me get back to you on that one.
I'm going to send my imaginary children to internship camps for summer. Little bastards…
Architects have been doing this for years, nothing new here.
Indentured servitude! Let the market be free.
They don't need a paycheck, God will take care of them.
"God" = "free market"
The invisible hand gives you the invisible paycheck.
Beats sitting home playing with Wonkette all day.
No, it doesn't.
beat me to it.
I have found this to be not fiscally profitable. Or emotionally. Plus, I presume my liver is roughly the texture of a cinder-block by now.
Get people to work, and don't pay them. It is just so American. The GOP is nutting all over themselves. Has Governor Walker heard about this?
You're so right! It's the ultimate anti-immigrant strategy. If they can get attorneys to hang drywall and wash dishes for free we will have finally defeated Mexico.
If these "workers" want some version of real life without the paycheck, shouldn't they be at home playing some version of the Sims?
Or maybe their cardboard box doesn't have electricity.
They could use their cardboard box at the initial cube in a game of MineCraft. Of course, they will need many, many more boxes.
If they weren't lawyers I would care more.
You do have a point there.
Maybe we now know what's keeping Neilist off the boards these days.
I represent that allegation! Without the rule of law the rich could do what ever they wanted . . . ah, let me get back to you on that.
So I guess "work" and "jerb" mean two completely different things now. I used to think the only reason I went to soul crushing work was because they paid me. Now, the only reason I show up at my soul crushing jerb is that they pay me. Until they don't.
Gimmah back are jerbs!!!
I know mah rats!!!
Soon, we will all be interns, except instead of no pay, we will be paid with delicious ramen and cup o' noodles.
Not even fake Ameros?
I'm holding out for potted anus.
Are you holding out as an individual or as a collective?
Haven't you learned anything from Wisconsin? Collective rights are so 20th century. This is a new age in U.S. America.
Back to the Grad School Diet, then? You'd only have to add popcorn and the occasional professor-purchased beer to complete the Grad School food triangle.
This is very short sighted. After a few months without getting paid all of these "interns" eventually starve to death and have to be replaced.
Sounds like a good "Headcount Reduction Plan" to me.
Especially if you skip the replacement part.
No, there's plenty more where they came from. And the "paid" workers are all starting to die from working 65-70 hour weeks to keep their jobs, so soon we'll have job openings again. It's all part of the circlejerk of life.
The invisible hand at work! all hail Rand.
The invisible hand is busy non-consensually fisting all non-plutocrat Americans.
I think I see a job opportunity. Hazmat removal of the carcasses. Necessity is the mother of invention. Or is it the cousin?
Bring outcha dead!
My motto is hard work pays off in the future, maybe – laziness has immediate rewards.
Wait, you have jobs at Wonkette? Doing what?
fapping ain't free
Would you take a Breitbart "bullet" for Riley?
What really puts an extra carbon coating on my biscuits about this is that many large corporations are flush with cash at this time. The CEO of our company actually said this at the last quarterly meeting. Some are claiming that they aren’t hiring because of uncertainty with the current administration and/or the economy. I think they're waiting till the next election.
I've always heard that payroll is the single biggest drag on company profits. So why not slash worker rolls, don't hire anyone new, make the lucky ones who are kept on work until they drop dead, and thereby earn huge-ass profits? It's the American way!
Sadly, that's what my place is doing. Just had a bunch of people take demotions/wage cuts/get the boot, though the "huge-ass profits" part isn't so much a factor for us (tiny, struggling niche business), so I guess that makes it a little easier to take? (Note: It does not make it any easier to take.)
Cause nothing says economic stability like the phrase President Palin
New politicians and pundits trying to break into their respective fields should be required to follow this practice. For several years.
*Rimjob*
Having an intern give you a rimjob in the oval office. Now that's an impeachable offense.
that's or that IS????
Depends on the meaning of what "is" is.
For the love of God, don't let the Repblican majority in the Tennessee General Assembly hear about this, or it will become a legislative agenda.
Right after they finish eviscerating the gun control laws and letting grocery stores sell wine and liquor. For freedom!
Ha! Like the liquor lobby is ever going to let that happen.
These people are part of the 47% who don't pay any taxes. Freeloaders.
Or as the WSJ termed them, "lucky duckies".
Los Angeles: come for the sun, stay for the abject poverty!
Yes. And Unions are thugs.
Careful, the troll will stalk you.
I'm sorry to report, sir, we are 3 staples short of my previous estimate.
Count them again, bitch. Also, your tie is ugly.
I'd be laughing if I wasn't crying. And also counting staples.
I can't count staples AND post on Wonkette!!
That would explain TTommy's sore dick.
"Intern," "Internee," "Interred," whatever.
professionalsvolunteers are the new blackyes, but does it make my butt look big?
naw..all that backfat makes your butt look big
How nice of you to notice.
I guess if you eat enough of them it might.
That's not community service transcendence!
Dang, the past two years of jumping through hoops to find a paycheck were wasted. Coulda been doing great by now if I knew the paycheck part wasn't part of the deal.
"Deer Wonkette Overlards,
Fat, drunk, snarky guy available for immediate and ongoing menial shit. Kthnxbye!"
I believe one the qualifications for a Wonkette internship is the willingness to be fondled by rightwing letches of the male persuasion.
I believe Breitbart writes for HuffPo these days so he is now known as even-the-liberal-Andrew-Breitbart…
And the droolers are outraged, OUTRAGED I TELLS YOU, over a teacher making 50,000 a year.
Shit, piss, and corruption! Never made that after years and years of teaching. Taught in a place where the scenery was good and we were told that the scenery is part of the fucking paycheck. Hard to eat shrubbery; maybe I needed to consult a better shrubber.
Don't forget the benefits, the sweet sweet benefits.
Not to worry, Newly installed Governor of Ohio John (Lehman Brothers) Kasich is selling off Ohio's Prisons one by one. Soon, with the help of friendly Judges, all the unemployeds will be in Prison where they belong, working for free; so, you've got that going for you, which is nice…
Aren't prisons more expensive than welfare?
Yes! But so much more satisfying, and the free labor; don't forget the free labor!
Yes, but there's no profit to be skimmed from welfare.
the breath catches…the mind boggles…imprisoned unemployed lawyers researching cases while in prison. Free labor AND a inexhaustible source of irony.
USA!USA!
The 47% of people who don't pay taxes will all be guarded by the 53% of people who work at prisons. Who cares if prisons cost more than welfare, they create private jobs.
AND! More importantly: CORPORATE PROFITS!!!!
Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
That private prison thing worked out so well in the Luzerne County, PA juvenile justice system.
Worked out really well for the Juvie Judges, short term, that is.
Some state and municipal professional job classifications are represented by public employee unions–the SEIU and AFSCME both represent engineers, health care professionals, even some lawyers, in Michigan for example.
Good thing that hasn't spread to the L.A. City Attorney's Office or they would have to pay everyone who worked for them.
Having been a municipal intern, albeit a paid one, I can tell you that interns are not represented by the unions.
small aside…growing up in a Jewish household in Detroit, I had to remind classmates: No, your ancestors enslaved my ancestors…
(helps to say it in an 8-year-old's determined voice)
Sub-Saharan Africans enslaved the Hebrews? That's not even in the Mosaic mythology.
Ken, at least I was only 8 when I still thought Africa was a country…
Sarah Palin *still* thinks Africa is a country, and she's like 58.
Please do not let higher education know about this. A lot of universities are hiring adjuncts at near-slavery wages and if they can get people to work for nothing, they will.
Garry Trudeau covered this back in 1996 (You'll want to read the whole week).
My husband The Perfesser had that on his office door for a couple of years! It was closer to reality than some people realize.
"Ashley St. Johns-Jacobs, 40, typically rises before 5 a.m. to get to her job at the Los Angeles city attorney’s office by 8 a.m."
Ashley has a long drive in from her Malibu beach cottage, methinks. By which I mean that this is another way of restricting desirable employment to those who need it least. The publishing industry, before it was dispersed by the internet, was famous for hiring little Seven Sisters rich girls to work for a pittance or less.
The article says she does live in Malibu. Her husband is a tradesman in film (lighting, according to the article), so they live off his earnings. It is possible to live in Malibu without being rich — not in a beachfront mansion in the colony, obvs. But here is something about rich people: they are not interning for a year at a time, unpaid, at 40 years old, in hopes of getting a job someday that will pay around $100K a year.
You're right, but a little Googling reveals she's got her shingle out in private practice, and only got licensed in '07. Nothing against her — I was guessing she lived in M'bu from the length of her commute, and was surprised to find I'd guessed correctly. That said, interning is one step above slavery and in my opinion as an employer no reputable employer would ever do it. You get what you pay for.
You know not of what you speak. Tons of "reputable" employers are doing it. Also, I thought your comment was quite sexist — does the fact that she is a woman make her any less in need of a job?? You are living in the past with regard to the "Seven Sisters" remark — and working for free these days as a lawyer is common to both sexes.
Ken, did it not occur to you, by reporting on this, your boss is now thinking: “That was easy. Send in the Interns.”
Ken is going to replace himself with an intern slave?
Arbeit macht frei.
Or as Manch would say; "Let my people c … "
What? Wait? No, of course not. I'm working on that spreadsheet right here. These are new graphics I may add to the Visio Presentation.
Who the fuck can work for free for a year without a paycheck? Was she a corporate sleaze lawyer the previous 17 years of her career and is now living on the cushion of that plush lifestyle? Or is she just turning tricks?
Fine minds. I mean WTF? Does she ride her bike to work and eat free in the cafeteria?
Her name is Ashley St. Johns-Jacobs? What do you think?
Someone whose husband (or wife) makes a lot of money.
turning tricks: If she got caught, she would defend herself on company time. Win!
Parents.
Apropos of nothing: my employers' payroll officer *just* anecdotally shared w/ me how her daugher will pop by their house every so often (quoted as saying: "I need cash") to help herself (w/ parents' permission) to their change jar, the standard household vessel they empty their pockets into til it's full, and somehow I guess this kid of theirs is at the ready w/ coin wrappers to scoop up their little mountain of surplus and off to the bank and then home, or shopping, or whatever.
This is neither a newly-grad 20something nor itinerant drug-addled progeny thing either: payroll officer is nearly 65 so I suppose this 'kid' is what, mid-30s. Nothing else in our chats has indicated she or her kids (the other one has 2 post-grad degrees) are anything but living comfortably.
It just struck me as head-scratchingly surreal.
Seriously. You know things are bad when lawyers are running to work for government for the stability….
I wonder if Whaley Barbour is thinking about this in Mississippi. As long as they were brown or black, I'm sure he would be okay with it, provided the contract binding the lawyer to the job included a covenant not to compete together with a freshly minted pair of manacles.
So our nation's corporate executive leeches are really taking advantage of the recession, allowing them to extend their exploitation of college students and recent grads to actual adults. We are living in the cyberpunk corporate distopia now, people; bring on the robotic implants and laser weapons.
Just as the intern system screws college students from poor or working class backgrounds whose parents can't afford to subsidize them while they work without pay, this would screw single professionals who can't live off their spouse's income.
Will work for hobo beans
How dare you demand hobo beans! Ashley St. John-Jacobs will do that job for nothing, and also ask for more work, too, also!
Somewhat off-topic, but: In the past, whenever the bankers ruined the economy, they had the temerity to jump out of their windows. I am truly disappointed in this generation's stock of usurious bastard.
If Jack doesn't get his ass out of Japan I'm afraid you'll have an opening for one of those applicants. Run, Jack! Run like the wind!
Run like the divine wind!
Can they collect unemployment while they are working at this "job?"
In my state the answer would be yes as long as you are still actively looking for a job and available to take a new job on little or no notice. If you aren't being paid for it – it doesn't count as "work".
This means we all get a starring role in The Pursuit of Happyness! Kids, we're moving into a cave!
I believe you can find intern in indentured…hmmmm.
You can if you are careful. Just like the coach said, "you have to play through the pain".
I guess I'm just too much of a puss…wait! Fap fap fap!!!
i would do this if i had any marketable for free skills.
Obvious slacker welfare BMW driving screaming queen. Just admit it and kneel before Haley and Ronnie. NOW!
i actually drive a mini cooper which i believe IS some kind of BMW.
*blushes*
Isn't there a TV talk show these people could anchor? It's in LA for God's sake!
"With no position open, she has been working as an unpaid intern for nearly a year in hopes of eventually getting hired when a job opens up."
With all these people working for free, what earthly reason does the employer have to open up jobs?
Okay, I get it, but I hope my pimp doesn't read this.
This morning, one of the millionaire talk radio hosts was again railing against people who want to raise taxes on millionaires. But there are so few of us, he seemed to be saying…yes, with all of the money!
The older I get, the more I see that the superiority our system—our "exceptionalism"—is continually spun to us by those who benefit most from it. They also exploit our unique heterogeneous culture to keep us looking at each other rather than at them. They keep us from wanting universal social programs like health care because someone else who isn't like us—who isn't as worthy, as "American"—will benefit too.
Wonkette is a very welcome tonic amidst the everyday madness.
"Wonkette is a very welcome tonic amidst the everyday madness."
And I like mine with Vodka.
Hell, a survey of millionaires showed that 42% of them don't consider themselves rich; I don't know if it comes from being so out of touch with the lives of normal people, jealousy of the even-richer, or something else, but it's ridiculous.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/14/survey-…
(Warning: the article is good; most of the comments are infuriating)
And the lemings will watch shit like "Undercover Boss" and "Sekrit Millionaire" and think how nice those people are…
Capitalism at it finest. I'm surprised they don't have the 'interns' shackled to their desk so they can be more productive.
USA! USA! USA!
Interns learn valuable skills – like how to live on 150 calories a day and how to find the most comfortable heating grates to sleep on.
Sooo…. How's Riley holding up?
Riley's not an intern anymore, he's a free-lancer. (He graduated a year ago!) But once again proving why I'll never be rich, I have always paid my interns. Not much, but no less than they were paid when we were part of Gawker Media with its millions and millions in the bank.
I won't work for food. I just keep on rolling on.
It's these damn unpaid interns that are ruining America for the rich.
At least the housing market will improve in the following cities;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_town….
My children will work 60 hours a week for the privilege to have 90% of their wages taken for a 200 sq ft one room apartment and enough beans and rice eat 10 meals a week. But, they will be GRATEFUL to have a job in Amurika!
Shh! Don't tell the boss about this.
Interns built the pyramids! (h/t The Baffler)
Such unpaid internships frequently violate minimum wage and other laws. Of course, if you're running the city attorney's office, who's going to prosecute you? One of your unpaid interns?
Today, we are all unpaid Wonkette interns.
My new company will pre-screen people who are willing to be unpaid interns. They will pay me a fee to receive the suitable for framing certificate of willingness to work for free. The interested company then will pay a fee to receive a list of willing and qualified slaves. WINNER.
Lawyers working for no pay on the mere hope of becoming employed? Why do I not haz a sad?
So something in America is trickling down. It's just not prosperity.
Interns built the pyramids! (H/T to the Baffler)
Does this make the new national slogan: Arbeit Macht Frei? Cause you know who else was big on free labor…
Wasn't Riley W. an unpaid intern for 4 – 5 years before he started getting the plum GOP secret sex retreat journo gigs?
I know he's probably only getting paid out of the change jar, but still…It seems to be working out for him.
OK, I'm home sick with a cold, so I'm not really functioning at peak efficiency — but am I missing something here? These folks are getting up early, dressing up in nice clothes, sitting in traffic/on the train/on the bus, and putting in a full day's work… to make the same ZERO dollars and ZERO cents that they would have made to stay home in sweatpants to eat Spaghetti-Os and watch daytime TV?
I don't get it.
Or MILF porn.
See – the Republicans promised jobs and here they are!
Don't they know that these companies will nevar buy the cow when they are getting the milk for free.
Working for free is stupid.
Unpaid internships are illegal (yes, even if they are for college credit; see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03inte…. It's a little known fact because the remedy is for the interns to lodge complaints and they are hesitant to do that. I'm not sure how these agencies are getting away with this.
THIS is why lawyers are all such geniuses! Nothing will convince a company to pay you quite like doing exactly the same work for them for free. Bound to do wonders for the unemployment rate too … that is, as soon as Da Man redefines "unemployment."
I signed up as an intern billionaire here in Wisconsin. Lousy job,, but some one has to do it, even for no pay.
The Governor just called, offering me tax breaks and said he'd fill in a wetland if I hire one legal citizen and a TIF district that should net me $1,500,000 for the factory I won't build. I also got invited to fly to Vegas in Donald Koch's private jet. I just had to promise not to allow a union in the non-factory.
Not a bad internship.
"Anyway, it’s a hot new trend, having degreed professionals work full-time without any pay at all. Because there are no jobs! And the governments are all broke, because the billionaires and millionaires don’t pay any taxes. No wonder rich people love America so much, as a legal address!"
Nailed it, Kenny-boy. Just nailed it. Now I'm getting a drink or eight
I too am an out-of-work lawyer in Los Angeles, but rather than work as an unpaid intern I spend my days masturbating to porn… a much better use of my time.
corporate ethic
Slave Laborer
I'm an unemployed lawyer in my 50's — been searching for work for four years — have great work experiences and references. I have been working for free for two years just to put something current on my resume. Check out how many unpaid legal jobs there are posted on the internet. This is total exploitation after years of hard work getting a professional degree and having student loans … and people think all lawyers are rich! Hah!
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