Hollywood is on strike. And I'm beyond annoyed.
It’s been months since I’ve written an actual article on Substack outside of my weekly reading list. Who knew that the writer and actor strikes in Hollywood is what it’d take to bring me back?
The reality is that I’m a progressive leftist who is all about union organizing, but there is just so much about these strikes nobody is talking about that I feel needs to be discussed. This is yet again just an example of the elites diverting attention from other massive issues in our country.
For those of you who are new here, I’m sorry if I scare you away. Substack used to be a place where, in addition to my weekly reading list, I shared my thoughts and opinions on world events. And sometimes, I even like to educate people on topics I think more people should know about.
Awareness aschmareness
Let’s address the elephant in the room. Workers in the United States under our current system of capitalism are treated like absolute garbage.
All of the incentives of capitalism are designed to maximize profit. In order to maximize profit, you need to exploit your workers. It’s just that simple. What blows my mind is how people are totally fine with the fact that it’s legitimately against the law to not maximize profits for shareholders.
Do you understand what that means?
It means that if a publicly traded company can do massive layoffs and ruin the lives of workers to raise their stock price a few cents, they have to do it. Do you know how insane that is?
The cost of living in the United States continues to rise, but wages have not kept up with these increases. Meanwhile, the average salary of CEOs and other C-Suite executives continues to skyrocket.
The problem is, most people haven’t even started to hear about some of these things until the writers of their favorite TV shows or actors started going on strike. That’s insane to me.
One of my favorite Twitter accounts I follow is Discussing Film because they give me fast updates on upcoming movies and TV shows. Recently, due to the strikes, they’re also tweeting a ton about how unfair things are in Hollywood.
Really? Netflix makes all that money and claims they can’t pay writers?
Are you telling me that many of these workers can’t afford or qualify for health insurance?
And Kal Penn thinks these workers should get a pay increase?
Well, no shit.
My issue isn’t necessarily with what they’re asking, it’s that this is not limited to Hollywood. This is what workers are dealing with around the country.
I binge Netflix as much as anyone else and love seeing movies with my son, but it kills me that we’re only getting awareness on these issues because famous people are discussing them.
But are they discussing how this is happening to essential workers who risked their lives during the pandemic? Nope. Where’s their awareness from some of the most famous people in the world?
Entertainment is important because we all need an escape from reality every now and then, but let’s be real; it’s not essential.
This is one of the biggest issues with capitalism: we value the wrong things in this country.
Imagine if teachers got half the publicity as this when they go on strike. These are the people literally teaching our children and in many cases, spending more time with them than some parents.
Where’s the fight for our social workers and mental health professionals trying to deal with our country’s ongoing mental health and addiction crisis?
Even during the Amazon strikes in recent years that got a ton of publicity, it was a fraction of the attention that these Hollywood strikes are getting.
Many of these actors and actresses have hundreds of thousands or even millions of social media followers. But how many of them are out there fighting for worker’s rights for everyone else? They’re voices can be used for such good and raising more awareness, but once the dust settles, they’ll all be silent.
But before I forget, I do need to say that Kal Penn actually does try to raise awareness about other issues, so maybe I shouldn’t have taken a shot at him. He’s aiight in my book.
“Do better by these people unless it affects me!”
In a recent weekly reading list, I reviewed the book Poverty, by America, and I hope everyone reads it. It’s one of the best books I’ve read about poverty in our insanely rich nation.
One of the primary messages this book drives home is that in order for us to begin fixing the poverty problems, some of us are going to have to give up a little. Unfortunately, we see time and time again how unwilling people are to give up a single thing for the greater good, and it breaks my heart on a daily basis.
For example, if you asked the average American, “Do you think low-income kids should be able to go to good public schools?”, they’ll immediately say, “Absolutely!”. But then you tell them, “That might mean that your child has to go to a slightly worse school.” Then, they’ll explain to you why that’s a bad idea.
Want to help the homeless by building some tiny home communities? Hell yeah! Just as long as it’s not in my backyard, right? Good ol’ NIMBYs at it again.
It’s the same issue with healthcare. Many people think that we need better healthcare in this country, but a universal healthcare system is completely off the table because it’ll raise their taxes a little (even though it’d save us all money over time).
We literally have people dying in this country by the tens of thousands or more due to a lack of health care. But don’t raise my taxes, I need make sure I can buy things I don’t need for temporary dopamine hits.
And what’s this have to do with the Hollywood strikes?
How many of the multi-millionaire actors, actresses, directors, producers and others have you seen offer to sacrifice some of their salary to help? It makes me sick.
The other day, I saw this clip going viral of Sean Gunn, James Gunn’s brother (don’t even get me started on Hollywood nepotism). And it made me livid.
I don’t know about Sean, but James Gunn is a multi-millionaire director and now the head of DC’s movie universe. Why isn’t Sean calling on his brother to sacrifice some of his salary to pay the writers and lower-level actors better?
I’ve seen countless other huge actors sounding off about this as well, and none of them are willing to give up some of their pay to ensure others are paid better wages. And do you know how disgusting that is?
Many of these insanely rich actors live in multi-million dollar mansions, have ridiculously priced artwork, fancy cars, eat thousand-dollar meals and every other thing a rich Hollywood elite would do.
I guarantee when they’re buying theirs expensive art and jewelry or spending thousands on a meal, the last thing on their mind is how people in Hollywood are struggling.
I don’t have time to get into the psychology of status and how these people sort their cognitive dissonance, but I hope you all realize how selfish they all are.
Off the top of my head, I can remember maybe one story of a male actor sacrificing some of his salary so his female co-star was paid a similar rate. With so many movies and TV shows each year, why don’t we hear about this more?
Imagine if everyone working on a show or film got to vote on everyone’s salary. Do you think a single actor would get paid 10s of millions for being in a film? Even worse, do you think some of these egotistical actors would still take the job if they didn’t make their same 10s of millions to ensure others were paid fair wages?
Yes, I think the studio executives need to pay people better, but it’s really telling that the vocal millionaires won’t even consider giving up a little as part of the negotiations. Why? Because they think they’re above everyone else even though most of them got their break due to nepotism or pure luck.
Time to be the asshole
The last thing I’ll say on this, which may make me sound like a terrible person, is that all of this is silly because being a well-payed Hollywood star is the pinnacle of entitlement.
This may sound like a right-wing opinion, but screw it.
No, I don’t think you’re owed anything for risking it all to move to Hollywood in the hopes of being famous. I think that’s a dumb personal decision. And best case scenario, you turn into one of the millionaire actors or actresses I was just talking about who don’t care about sacrificing anything for anyone else.
If you move out to one of the most expensive cities in one of the most expensive states in the country, I have very little empathy.
Around the country, there are people who are struggling to get by and providing much more essential work than those in Hollywood. I have a finite amount of fucks to give, and I’ll reserve them for the everyday Americans who can barely put food on their table, keep a roof over their heads and keep their lights on.
I’m not going to lose sleep about people who risked it all moving out to Hollywood, joining an industry notorious for treating people like garbage, and are now struggling.
Until we resolve many of the other economic issues in this country, I’m just going to be annoyed that my news feeds are filled with mega-rich celebrities virtue-signaling about how low-level actors and writers need more money…as they tweet from their mansions.
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