Im sure most of you are aware of the current writers strike. For those on the left that complain about the perils of corporations having monopolies on certain industries it elucidating to see your lack of concern when unions flex their monopolistic muscle. Markets find the fair price for all things including the value a writer’s skill. The writers union is unhappy with its market value and instead of finding legitimate ways to increases it’s value it aims to increase its value by forcibly taking other groups market value. The rhetorical story, in which the left buys into, is that the little man, in this case the writer, is sticking it to the rich fat cat producers which are taking inordinate amount of the profits by forcing the producers to pay more.
If unions or people on the left had even vague understanding of economics they would realize that that the cost of any of the concessions a production companies makes to the writers will have to be managed usually by being passed on to the consumer. Of course this is not always the case and as this post notes, another cost to the writers selfishly demanding more than their market value is that other jobs vital to producing entertainment are suffering.
“I respect the WGA’s position. They probably do deserve a larger percentage of profit participation, but a lengthy strike will affect more than just the writers and studios. On my show we had 14 writers. There were also 2 cameramen, 2 camera assistants, 4 hair stylists, 4 makeup artists, 7 wardrobe people, 4 grips, 4 electricians, 2 craft service, 4 props people, 6 construction, 1 medic, 3 art department, 5 set dressers, 3 sound men, 3 stand-ins, 2 set PAs, 4 assistant directors, 1 DGA trainee, 1 unit manager, 6 production office personnel, 3 casting people, 4 writers assistants, 1 script supervisor, 2 editors, 2 editors assistants, 3 post production personnel, 1 facilities manager, 8 drivers, 2 location managers, 3 accountants, 4 caterers and a producer who’s not a writer. All 102 of us are now out of work.
One possible way producers will get around the problem of having to pay more than the market value of writers is to reduce costs with these employees. Be it thorough the elimination of positions to reduction in wages, it’s quite likely producers will reduce the standard of living for some of these workers. Note that the producers will not be able to pay less than the value of these workers because he is not allowed the power of monopoly. Using force to artificially inflate market value is apparently a right only reserved for certain groups of people.
