Just took another look at the terms that ended the writers' strike and what stands out to me is that the total value of the deal is $233 million/year. To put that into perspective: Disney's streaming revenues were $5.5 billion *last quarter* and Netflix's profit was $1.5 billion *last quarter*
Upshot: the studios and streamers shut down production over a friggin rounding error on their accounting spreadsheet. smdh.
@DataDrivenMD because it's not just about the money right now. It's about putting workers in their place and squeezing real humans out of jobs, because they are convinced creativity doesn't matter... up to the point at which it can be used to threaten their control and inspire rebellion.
Actors are very visible workers who are very good at being inspiring. It's not about the drop-in-the-ocean money. It's about the Return to the Office and Flexible Working and Disability Rights in a Pandemic>
@DataDrivenMD The union initially estimated the contract would cost the industry $429 million/year. So the strike did result in a more favorable contract for the studios, but was the cost worth it?
The phrase "stepping over dollars to pick up a pennies," comes to mind.
@DataDrivenMD
I think it is ego in the corporate echo chamber. Success looks like this so this is how to be successful, except itās that way because of this argument and other ways are rejected.
You have a history of toxic āsuccessā where the opportunity cost of doing it better is never accounted for. It is what feminism calls the patriarchy.
āIām in charge, Iām paying so do it my way or quit.ā
Itās the weak āstrong manā.
This blinkered approach still doesnāt recognise itās a value exchange where the studios need to compensate with cash because itās all they have. Confused by the total volume of cash being worth more than the pay of the individual while not equating to the market value of the individual.
Itās the culture of less money is better as growth is shrinking, slamming against the want to be the best.
It is in effect an agency problem except failure is from incompetence not malice. Also, survivor bias as stories of good deals donāt survive the editors.
@DataDrivenMD This is what I always think of in these cases.
https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/enough-by-john-c-bogle
@DataDrivenMD The hell of an economic system driven by shareholders and giving them a mentally stimulating ludicrously unsustainable ROI every quarter or ELSE they'll panic. It's doomed to fail and be horrid for everyone. System's broke to shit so bad it's amazing there's anything at all and we haven't destroyed everything
Attached: 1 image https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/09/trump-milley-death-fbi-threats.html #uspolitics #TFG #elections #media so, apparently our media chooses not to cover the marching of authoritarian fascism because āit would make them sound partisan ā. Maybe check the party registration of your bosses when you think you make that decision. You work for team fascism and normalize transgressions.
@DataDrivenMD I want to see a strike that holds until all these predatory executives are hung out to dry and the companies converted into worker-owned cooperatives.
Anything less is a bandaid.
@wagesj45 @DataDrivenMD I feel pretty confident the WGA got as much as they could, otherwise they wouldn't have ended it. They had a strong hand and played it very, very well.
As I understand it, there's two things that make your proposal difficult.
1. Generally, asking for a piece of "profits" in Hollywood is fraught. They use accounting gimmicks that result in the production of mega-hit movies like _Forest Gump_ being considered unprofitable. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/19/business/nightcap-hollywood-accounting-strike/index.html
For two decades after World War II, incomes grew at a rate close to the U.S. economy-wide growth rate. Anemic growth from 1969 to 1974 kept inequality in check. But since then, the benefits of growth have not been evenly distributed. Racial and gender inequality is also manifested in income inequality.
@DataDrivenMD the brainworms from the rich are really something. It's not enough to have a lot of money, they must have ALL THE MONEY. Every penny and cent from every employee, squeeze every drop of blood and suffering, yes they may not even notice it on a book but the point is they got it and cemented their place as the rightful masters and that's enough for them.
(that last bit is a joke, it's never enough)
@DataDrivenMD Incidentally, one of the time-honoured ways to get rich is to convince a bunch of rich people with more money than businesses to put one in charge of a profitable business, and then, somehow, become rich, often at a greater rate than the capitalists whose money the CEO is supposed to be growing.
Interestingly, the capitalists don't seem to mind sharing their wealth with that kind of people. Sometimes they don't even mind very much if the business ends up becoming unprofitable; they might even give the future ex-CEO tens of millions of dollars just to make him go away.
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