Of course you view things differently if you've never been poor. But that doesn't make you evil, and OP is not a victim. In none of her examples was anyone treating her badly. (I know you are not claiming this, just saying).
In fact, as you hint, having been poor and then getting in to the middle class you probably have a better chance of making it big.
The article doesn't mention they're software engineering interns, and she made less than some other jobs too: "I still made less than any of the executive assistants, or the receptionist. I was, in fact, the lowest-paid person in the building including the interns"
The way I read it, it implies that the receptionist got paid more than than the interns. Either way, she got paid less even than than receptionist, which is generally not exactly a high-paid job.
It's also not clear to me what exactly her job was by the way?
I don't know how things are in the US, but I've never seen interns being paid more than a token amount in Europe. You generally take on interns as a public service and to spot potential talent to hire, not because they're good/productive programmers. A good internship requires quite a lot of guidance from a senior developer.
> She is a writer and not a software engineer. Comparing her salary to software engineer interns therefore isn't fair.
I'm going to call BS on that. Written communication is a high-leverage activity that if you are going to the trouble of having a dedicated position for it, paying that person well is a pretty good idea. Perhaps not as well as an engineering role of similar seniority, but about as well as a design or QA role (and for similar reasons).
Paying that person less than an intern is both shortsighted and insulting.
The question is not if writing is important. It's very easy to argue that a nurse is more important than any engineer, but they are never paid as well, people have more or less accepted that.
I'm not arguing for the importance of writing except in the sense that similar arguments used to be made for the importance of design.
If you actually have a dedicated writer on staff (as opposed to outsourcing it to a marketing agency), paying them less than an intern is as mind-bogglingly stupid as paying a full time designer less than an intern.
BTW, nurses may get paid less than engineers, but they don't get paid less than medical residents, which is a more appropriate parallel to an engineering intern.
In fact, as you hint, having been poor and then getting in to the middle class you probably have a better chance of making it big.