Some Thoughts on the Writers' Strike, & Other Things

God knows, I don't get paid for this at all (if somebody out there wants to hire me to write, I'd be ecstatic), but if I did, I'd be very pissed if I didn't get paid every time someone viewed my writing, no matter what the medium. Songwriters get paid every time their songs are played, so why shouldn't screenwriters (I'm not sure that term covers both TV & movie writers, but that's who I'm talking about) get paid the same way? What people forget is that every writer isn't like Larry David, worth a gazillion dollars. Sure, some of them are, but the vast majority are probably more middle class folks just trying to make a living. I happen to think that creative people should actually get paid more than the decidedly non-creative people who "run" show business. These are the people who entertain us, hopefully make us think, & generally keep a lot of us sane enough to live a relatively productive life. I imagine that for every script a screenwriter sells, he/she probably writes several dozen that don't sell. Also, these people are basically self-employed, & generally don't have the same benefits that most workers have. The fact that they have a union to help them get at least health insurance is wonderful. I know that unions don't have the kind of clout they used to, but they're still necessary in lots of ways. Just because we don't have 10 year olds working in factories anymore (at least in this country) doesn't mean we don't have other injustices that should be addressed. Unions are the reason we don't have those aforementioned children working anymore, for one thing. I had uncles who were union members (mostly the UAW), & without them they couldn't have made the decent living they did to support their families. Not to mention the wonderful health insurance, even for retired members, which unfortunately is becoming extinct. Unions basically built this country, & I worked in lots of political campaigns in the '70s that couldn't have been viable without their support. I imagine that lots of people today believe that unions are no longer necessary; that unions basically drive prices up & there are more laws protecting workers (hello-mostly because of union influence), but if unions were as prevalent today as they were thirty years ago I don't think we'd have had so many of our manufacturing jobs outsourced to other countries. The result of NAFTA & other trade agreements (all opposed by unions) have not only been higher unemployment in this country, but also the cause of so many incredibly shoddy & outright dangerous products being imported (can you say "Mattel"?). This has been the real "higher price" for our country. And don't even get me started about calling my bank &/or credit card companies & getting someone whose command of the English language is tenuous at best, & who can't deal with anything that digresses from the (obviously) printed list of problems/subjects in front of them. And this takes me to a related subject.

Does anyone know anymore what the term "customer service" actually means? I swear to God, the next time I go to a drive-thru or to the grocery/discount store, if the person supposedly waiting on me doesn't even acknowledge that I'm actually there, I WILL make a scene (my daughter knows I'm capable of doing it). I mean, it's as though they'll be struck dumb if they make eye contact- what is
that about? Ok, I know that a lot of these people are quite young, & the pay's not all that good, but were they raised by wolves? Were they truly never taught how to treat other people? I've been involved practically all my life in dealing with the public in one way or another, & not counting government employees (who I'm not including, because they get paid no matter how they treat people, & have always been less than gracious & helpful as a rule), I've noticed that in the last few years almost nobody has any concept of what this type of job involves. Most people who are supposed to serve the public act as if the whole experience is beneath them. As trite as it may sound, it's simply the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated. It's not a difficult concept to understand, so I guess the problem is actually that it's too much trouble to make the effort for a lot of people.

I also think this somehow ties in with the nutjobs (do you hear me, Lou Dobbs?) who have a hard-on about immigration. In reality, the only jobs illegal immigrants are taking in this country are the ones that nobody here actually wants to do. If Americans are just dying to wash dishes, mow lawns, get up on roofs, & do other manual labor for minimum (& sometimes less) wage & no benefits, they can be my guest. Too bad that the immigrants here don't have more of those call center jobs we're outsourcing; they'd be a whole lot more conscientious than the people who're doing it now, & undoubtedly nicer. And the politicians who are so concerned about all these "illegal" people (& we're talking about Mexicans, right?) taking all those wonderful jobs should be trying to get the Mexican government to change whatever the hell they need to change to provide these folks with the means to support their families & provide them decent living conditions. From what I understand, almost all of Central & South American countries have this huge divide between rich & poor, with not much of what we would consider a middle class. This is actually the basic problem. Who in their right minds would prevent people from bettering themselves? Isn't that what our country is all about- or at least used to be? I wouldn't be living here if my grandparents hadn't decided that trying to make a better life in America was much better than struggling in the old country (in their case, Italy). Our country is truly a nation of immigrants, welcoming everybody, yet some people are actually trying to put up fences & walls to isolate us. Gee, wasn't there a wall in Germany that tried to keep people both in & out? That worked out real well in the end, didn't it?

I could keep on writing about this forever, but I'll save that for another time, maybe. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone (& how about those Pilgrims, now that I mention it?).