Put yourself in the shoes of a smart ambitious but poor kid. You work your ass off at your crappy high school. Study for the SAT at the local library (when its still open). Manage to pay for college with a mix of scholarships, minimum wage jobs, and loans. You graduate with good grades in a major you thought would get you a decent job (i.e. business).
But instead of climbing up that mythical ladder into a white collar job the establishment erects yet another barrier. Seems like a BA and a good GPA is no longer enough. Now you need to complete at least six months as an unpaid intern to get your foot in the door. For the rich kids you met at college this is not much of a problem -- they just phone home and money for six months rent appears. But WTF are you going to do -- your parents may well be willing to give you everything they can -- unfortunately everything won't even cover the deposit on the cheapest rat trap apartment in a city were you could get an internship.
Net result rich kids take the internships and in a year or two the rich kids get permanent jobs. Poor kids stay behind the counter at Starbucks and start making payments on the student loans they took out to finance their future.
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/152653
But instead of climbing up that mythical ladder into a white collar job the establishment erects yet another barrier. Seems like a BA and a good GPA is no longer enough. Now you need to complete at least six months as an unpaid intern to get your foot in the door. For the rich kids you met at college this is not much of a problem -- they just phone home and money for six months rent appears. But WTF are you going to do -- your parents may well be willing to give you everything they can -- unfortunately everything won't even cover the deposit on the cheapest rat trap apartment in a city were you could get an internship.
Net result rich kids take the internships and in a year or two the rich kids get permanent jobs. Poor kids stay behind the counter at Starbucks and start making payments on the student loans they took out to finance their future.
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/152653
