Yes, it’s stupid. And the story is based only on auctions, so there’s not much to really discuss, although I personally find them a little offensive – whether it’s for ‘charidee’ or not, it’s still giving people professional opportunities based on their ability to pay. The comparison with indentures in the article is a good one. At some point I’ll expand on a suggestion I made at a government event that journalism internships should be treated as part of volunteering in your community, and opened up to a wider pool of people as part of that.

Not only does this idea clearly limit work experience in fields like media to only those from a wealthy background, but it is totally disadvantageous to those who still get their work experience the traditional way – begging, pleading, writing inimitably hilarious emails etc.

I already know of stories where rich kids have ‘bought’ work experience, perhaps through auctions, and either the parents who actually paid are: 1) board members of the publishing group 2) someone generally considered important enough not to upset. The result is that there will be 5 workies on a magazine, 4 are BA or masters students in the final throes and 1 is an 18 year old with a rich dad. Guess who gets the full page byline?