Hollywood's Writers' Strike

[NirvanaMan]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Um, there are ALWAYS people willing to take any job for less money. That rush to the bottom will leave ALL of us STARVING.

Sure. But they won't get the gig unless they are just as good as those currently employed who are making more money. If you excel at what you do, regardless of the industry, then you can command a price premium in the market. That is the beauty of capitalism. All things generally have a way of sorting themselves out in the free market, including employment.

If there are a slew or writers that are just as good and can earn for their corporation a similar amount of revenue for less compensation, that means that the current staff is overpaid. If not, then said employer will be forced to pay more for more experience or more talent.
Not everything needs to be regulated.

I'm not sure what experience you have in hiring individuals, but if you have any then I am sure you have experienced this first hand. Personally speaking, there are lots of people willing to take a job I have in my department for a lot less money than I am expecting to pay. However, I need talented and experienced people working for me, therefore, I need to budget enough to pay for it. I can't expect to get someone with uber skills and 15 years experience in the industry and pay them the going rate of someone fresh out of college. Wise talented people already understand this and exploit it to their benefit. People are not commodities. They should not be treated as such.

The value of the unions at the dawn of the industrial revolution clearly cannot be understated. However, their worth and power in todays business environment is of significant concern and should be reevaluated. Not to say they should all be abolished (though I would dance a happy dance if that were to happen) but perhaps they have become to powerful and too demanding for their own good.

In closing, you will only be STARVING if you suck at what you do or are lazy. So long as you are hard-working, talented, and your skill set is deemed to have value to an employer then you will continue to be well compensated. In fact, you will almost always be worth more to an alternative employer than your current one, within reason.

Fear not.