Obama to Ban Internships for College Students?

The Obama Administration, in its unending quest to take over ever aspect of American life, is apparently planning to prevent companies from hiring unpaid interns to work and gain real-life experience.

The Obama administration's top law enforcement officer at the Labor Department, M. Patricia Smith, is targeting companies that give young people unpaid internships. She claims that internships are rife with abusive practices and that serious violations of labor law are widespread. Arguing that interns should get paid at least minimum wage, Ms. Smith and the White House risk destroying a valuable steppingstone that gives many young Americans training they need to get jobs they want in the future.

The Obama Administration continues to show that it does not have the faintest clue what real-life is all about, now wants to cut off one of the tools that young people have to get jobs and succeed.

But, as with all things Obama, it is all about "fairness":

The O Force worries that unpaid internships might disadvantage less-affluent students, who might not be able to afford to spend their summers at unpaid jobs. But the administration's solution risks eliminating many internships at for-profit companies so that no one gets them.

Because some people cannot afford to work for free, or don't want to make the time to work for free, no one can. That is fair, in Obama's worldview.

The Obama administration, which is full of rhetoric about improving education, actually views education extremely narrowly. In the real world, people gain a lot of practical knowledge on the job. Eliminating training opportunities will only mean worse careers and lower future earnings for those President Obama's team is claiming to protect.

Who ever accused Obama of operating in the real world?

Of course, if you want to work for Obama, you can feel free to work for free.

This summer, Organizing for America is looking for students, recent graduates, and anyone else who believes in the power of community organizing, to help lead our grassroots movement...This position is unpaid.

As someone who graduate from a college that emphasizes the value of internships, I cannot disagree more with the notion that students are somehow abused by working an internship. The Black Collegian Online seems to agree.

More and more students are finding out that applied learning such as internships and cooperative education programs (co-ops) give the necessary practical experience, and provides a contact base that is invaluable in the job search process. For employers, these programs allow them to get a jump-start on training a talented young workforce.

So, hiring documented unpaid workers is bad; but hiring paid undocumented workers is fine?

Why do I have the sense that Obama doesn't like unpaid interns because he cannot tax them?