This was more or less my situation. I took an unpaid internship at Frontline on PBS while in college, accrued credit card debt, and realized this was a path for

This was more or less my situation. I took an unpaid internship at Frontline on PBS while in college, accrued credit card debt, and realized this was a path for my richer peers--not me. They could afford to work their ways up to a financially sustainable role in the media hierarchy over the next decade of their lives; I needed something financially sustainable _now_. Having "only" your parents as a financial failsafe sucks, as in the case of this author. Having no failsafe sucks more. The latter situation is what the the vast majority of Americans experience--it's just that those of us in the prestige occupations or well-paying ones never really rub shoulders with these people. Props to the author. He's struggling mightily with the industry-wide decline, but still admitted his privilege within his situation.