I mean, in storybook land this is how things should work.

But in the recent past, the most recent decade especially, companies have infamously been using temp jobs as a means to get around paying full-time salaries and benefits perpetually. Same with internships. For lower level white-collar workers, the progression isn't from temp job to permanent job but temp job to temp job to temp job to early underfunded retirement.

Not that I see an easy way out of this--companies of all sorts are driven to this behavior inexorably by the market--but people genuinely interested in transitioning to a better economy for everyone have to look at this fact head on.

In real life land, people are responsible for their own careers. Temp jobs are an option if a worker so chooses and not a cure all. If a temp job to get a temp paycheck to get temp experience does not help fulfill their goals then they should not choose it.

Many forces shaping employment options are considerably larger than any one individual's choices about their own career, so I think it's fair (and important) to look at systemic trends, and what effect they have. Of course, in the short term, each person also has to make their own decisions with the systemic factors as they currently exist, so I don't entirely disagree.

I agree with you that there are many forces that shape options, but my original point was that temp work is an option. My original reply was to someone that threw out a blanket statement that all temp work was bad in the long term. Surely there are some temp workers that can benefit in the long term from the skills that they will learn and the additional income.

Is this anything more than a clever rhetorical move to put the onus on lower level workers who are struggling to deal with systemic changes?

My statement is purely descriptive, which I note you don't controvert. White collar temp jobs have substantially increased their share of the economy relative to the mid-20th century. And the structure over time of career progression is also substantially changed as a result of that.

Saying, "well, they chose to do it" sidesteps analyzing the systemic issues. No more than saying "well, black people choose to work for less pay than white people" analyzes anything meaningful.

When temp jobs and underemployment become your only option, a company has created a de facto way to avoid providing benefits that would normally be considered standard to any other kind of employee. The growth of temp jobs and unpaid internships shows that companies will exploit the demand for any kind of employment this way and it is hugely unethical.

This problem has a simple legal fix: trigger benefits requirements when the job has full time work, not full time employees.