Inherit ritt the win
Internships allow privileged ed offspring to be handed down wn success rather than earn it
OF the 1,500 unpaid interns hired into Michael Bloomberg’s may-mayoral office in New York City inin 2002, at least one in five had been recommended by someone within the administration. And oneone successful candidate had an espe-pecially easy interview: Emma Bloomberg. For the mayor’s daughter to land the coveted position, a special waiver had to be granted by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, which publicly asks city employees to “resist natural parental instincts” when making recommendations.
When Bill de Blasio took office in January 2014, he was determined to strike a new, more progressive path than his predecessor. As he said at his inauguration: “We are re called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that hat threaten to unravel the city we love.” That summer, the chair hair of the Conflicts of Interest Board, recently appointed byy de Blasio, issued waivers for two summer interns: Chiara de Blasio and Dante de Blasio, the mayor’s daughter and son.
And so the wheel turns. Internships have become yet anotherther way that the upper middle class can hoard opportunities for their children. What is remarkable is that the US, a nation which hich prides itself on being a meritocracy, tolerates these hereditary tary privileges.
Employers like to hire someone with knowledge and understanding of their field. This seems reasonable enough. But the whole system is deeply unfair. The American ideal isis of equal opportunity; but only those from affluent families can afford to do an internship, especially in expensive cities like New York, Los Angeles or DC. “Internships,” says conservative scholar Charles Murray, “are affirmative action for the advantaged.”
It is surely un-American to hand out these opportunitiesties so unfairly.
This summer, thousands of ambitious young Americans are crowding into offices, willing to work for little or nothing, burnish their résumés and maybe learn something. Once rare, internships are now the norm: now In one survey, three in five graduating seniors had done an internship during college. Most were unpaid.
Internships have become important staging posts between college and career, especially in certain high-end professions. The “Big Four” consulting audit companies — Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and Price water house Coopers( P wC )— place aaround 30,000 interns each year. As many as nine in 10 new hires at Goldman Sachs are former interns.
And internships rank as the most important factor in deciding whether to hire a recent college graduate or not, accord-ing to a 2012 survey of human-resources professionals, manager and executives at 50,000 employers.
On an individual level, perhaps few of us will feel guilty about helping our own or our friends’ children into a valuable internship — especially when even the most progressive public figures seem to have no problem with it.
As the writer Reihan Salam points out, “Even the most committed egalitarian won’t deny her daughter the opportunity to take an internship with a beloved friend and colleague just because other children won’t get the same leg up.”
And yet, many of the children of the upper middle class might benefit more from learning the value of an honest day’s work. Rather than heading off for an internship orchestrated by their parents, it might be better for these young adults to experience a taste of life at the bottom of the labor market. If we’re looking for a poster child, Sasha Obama fits the bill. Last summer, the ex-president’s daughter worked at the take-out register of a seafood restaurant. Sure, she was accompannied by six Secret Service agents, but by all accounts she was a good worker. And isn’t that what America is supposed to be about? Not soft internships, but hard work.
America is becoming a more class-bound society by the year. Affluent, well-educated Americans are breaking away from the rest of society. While the majority languish, the favored fifth at the top of the ladder have seen rising incomes and deepening housing wealth in the last few decades. The idea of the American dream has always been a ccommon one. Right now, through college access, zoninging regulations, legacy admission and — yes — internships, the dream is alive only for those born onto the highest rungs of the ladders.
The American dream is being hoarded. Time to share it again.
RichardRicha V. Reeves is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of “DreaDream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class is Leaving Everyone Else in tthe Dust, Why That is a Problem, and What To Do About It.”