I'm still not buying it

Back at a theater I used to work at, Clay Shirky used to say "Never give an intern an intern's job."
And my response was to agree with "Interns aren't worth what you don't pay them."
So I got to admit that if all interns disappeared, it wouldn't make any difference at all. Especially if interns are what enable people to work 80-hour weeks.

Because if you're working an 80-hour week, you're probably only getting about 12 hours of work a week actually done. And the intern is just taking away time from that.