The obvious answer is “never,” but this story that someone submitted to reddit had me rethinking that stance. Given a situation like this one—where the person is obviously qualified for a higher-paid job than what he or she can get because he or she lacks an oftentimes-meaningless piece of paper—I’m finding it hard to blame the perpetrator.

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Jesse Singal is a former opinion writer for The Boston Globe and former web editor of the Washington Monthly. He is currently a master's student at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Policy. Follow him on Twitter at @jessesingal.