We welcome former Writers Guild of America (West) president and current co-chair of the negotiating committee, David Goodman, who also happens to be the head writer for many of your favorite TV shows like “The Family Guy” to tell us why TV and movie writers are on strike.
Although I am admittedly not a major consumer of television shows and films, I support the WGA writers and hope the writers are able to achieve their goals. The WGA’s proposal of having a minimum number of writers per project seems completely reasonable to me and that is probably necessary to maintain a profession of professionals as opposed to ‘gig economy’ nonsense which will require writers to maintain multiple jobs all without stability and all with very poor pay and benefits.
While we are on this topic, I would like to put a little bit of a spotlight on another arts and entertainment field which, in my opinion, needs greater support across the country. Several orchestras and music organizations across the country are struggling for support. To give a local example in Texas, the San Antonio Symphony, an orchestra with over a century of history in one of the US’s largest and most diverse cities, disbanded in 2022 after the unionized musicians were asked to make major concessions. The final offer to the union would have cut the number of full-time musicians down to 42 from 72. The salaries for those full-time musicians would have been cut from $36,000 to $24,000. Even in San Antonio, $24,000/year is not even remotely a livable wage and so the offer was rejected by the union. The orchestra was then dissolved.
In addition to having a livable wage, it is important for musicians to have expanded medical coverage and medical leave as work-related injuries such as repetitive motion injuries and hearing damage are not uncommon for orchestral musicians. Given cutbacks and anti-union companies being unwilling to donate to unionized orchestras, there are many musical organizations and musicians which are struggling to make a living in music. Ideally, there would be greater public support for musicians and the benefits they give to their communities, but this does not get much attention. That’s why I thought to mention it here.
Furthermore, on the topic of specialized academic libraries, I’m sure there will be some pressure to cut the budgets for music libraries at universities. Music recordings can be streamed and online music databases offer music scores, which might be used to justify decreases in physical holdings and library staff, but having materials online often makes retrieval more challenging and so it is important to have library staff with specialized training to know how to find the materials requested by students and faculty. Also, given the obscene pricing on some of these electronic databases and issues with publishers removing their materials from databases, it probably makes sense for music libraries to retain their physical holdings especially for materials which were already purchased.
Ralph and Gang: Can you please do an updated segment on The Debt Ceiling and CORPORATE SUBSIDIES that should be on the chopping block? That right there could balance the budget!
Thank You for a podcast with a wealth of actionable information.
I know this question was not posed to Klassik, but I will give my opinion on the matter anyway. The debt ceiling is an entirely fabricated and nonsensical maneuver by Congress. For one, it is based on economic ignorance that assumes that national debt is even a problem for a country with a sovereign floating currency as the United States federal government has had since the 1970s. Proper knowledge of macroeconomics should be enough to eliminate the debt ceiling drama.
On top of that, if Congress passes an appropriation, it should be assumed that Congress already addressed the economic impact of the passed appropriation. This was behind the ‘Gephardt Rule’ which essentially made the debt ceiling irrelevant until Congressional conservatives unnecessarily brought it back in the mid-1990s. Now, of course, the debt ceiling is purely a political tactical move and it isn’t done for any functional economic benefit.
This might be a shocking statement for some, but the federal government should never have a goal of a balanced budget because it is not economically important to have a balanced budget given what I mentioned in the first paragraph. The government’s goal should be to meet the needs of the public. Austerity, which would be necessary to balance the budget, simply shifts the debt burden to the public, a currency user, and away from the currency issuer that is the federal government. That is economic lunacy and Michael Hudson of the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College briefly discussed this shift in a previous RNRH episode.
Now, this does not mean that I am advocating for corporate subsidies. With proper economic knowledge, it is easy to develop ways to maintain well-paying employment without militarization. Militarization occurs via corporate subsidies, to put it very briefly. With proper economic knowledge, it is easy to develop a single-provider healthcare system, such as the British NHS, which expands quality medical care to all citizens. Naturally, part of the proper economics is maintaining full employment and so government will have to develop ways to keep everyone employed, but that is entirely feasible if political effort is made to achieve that goal.
I’ve made the recommendation many times, and I’ll make it again, that the RNRH should have Randy Wray of the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College on to discuss these matters of interest to many listeners. Wray would also be a good guest to discuss banking regulation given the subject of his recent book, ‘Why Minsky Matters,’ published by the Princeton University Press in 2018. I hope that by now, Steve, Francesco, or someone else affiliated with the RNRH has summarized Wray’s work for Mr. Nader. Surely Mr. Nader is familiar with Bard College given where Mr. Nader is from and we know Mr. Nader is aware of Princeton! I would have to assume that Mr. Nader would be interested in the progressive knowledge coming from these institutions.
Although I am admittedly not a major consumer of television shows and films, I support the WGA writers and hope the writers are able to achieve their goals. The WGA’s proposal of having a minimum number of writers per project seems completely reasonable to me and that is probably necessary to maintain a profession of professionals as opposed to ‘gig economy’ nonsense which will require writers to maintain multiple jobs all without stability and all with very poor pay and benefits.
While we are on this topic, I would like to put a little bit of a spotlight on another arts and entertainment field which, in my opinion, needs greater support across the country. Several orchestras and music organizations across the country are struggling for support. To give a local example in Texas, the San Antonio Symphony, an orchestra with over a century of history in one of the US’s largest and most diverse cities, disbanded in 2022 after the unionized musicians were asked to make major concessions. The final offer to the union would have cut the number of full-time musicians down to 42 from 72. The salaries for those full-time musicians would have been cut from $36,000 to $24,000. Even in San Antonio, $24,000/year is not even remotely a livable wage and so the offer was rejected by the union. The orchestra was then dissolved.
Link: https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2022/03/28/why-is-the-san-antonio-symphony-on-strike-ksat-explains/
Link: https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2022/06/17/no-more-music-board-of-directors-vote-to-dissolve-san-antonio-symphony-due-to-lack-of-labor-contract/
In addition to having a livable wage, it is important for musicians to have expanded medical coverage and medical leave as work-related injuries such as repetitive motion injuries and hearing damage are not uncommon for orchestral musicians. Given cutbacks and anti-union companies being unwilling to donate to unionized orchestras, there are many musical organizations and musicians which are struggling to make a living in music. Ideally, there would be greater public support for musicians and the benefits they give to their communities, but this does not get much attention. That’s why I thought to mention it here.
Furthermore, on the topic of specialized academic libraries, I’m sure there will be some pressure to cut the budgets for music libraries at universities. Music recordings can be streamed and online music databases offer music scores, which might be used to justify decreases in physical holdings and library staff, but having materials online often makes retrieval more challenging and so it is important to have library staff with specialized training to know how to find the materials requested by students and faculty. Also, given the obscene pricing on some of these electronic databases and issues with publishers removing their materials from databases, it probably makes sense for music libraries to retain their physical holdings especially for materials which were already purchased.
Ralph and Gang: Can you please do an updated segment on The Debt Ceiling and CORPORATE SUBSIDIES that should be on the chopping block? That right there could balance the budget!
Thank You for a podcast with a wealth of actionable information.
I know this question was not posed to Klassik, but I will give my opinion on the matter anyway. The debt ceiling is an entirely fabricated and nonsensical maneuver by Congress. For one, it is based on economic ignorance that assumes that national debt is even a problem for a country with a sovereign floating currency as the United States federal government has had since the 1970s. Proper knowledge of macroeconomics should be enough to eliminate the debt ceiling drama.
On top of that, if Congress passes an appropriation, it should be assumed that Congress already addressed the economic impact of the passed appropriation. This was behind the ‘Gephardt Rule’ which essentially made the debt ceiling irrelevant until Congressional conservatives unnecessarily brought it back in the mid-1990s. Now, of course, the debt ceiling is purely a political tactical move and it isn’t done for any functional economic benefit.
This might be a shocking statement for some, but the federal government should never have a goal of a balanced budget because it is not economically important to have a balanced budget given what I mentioned in the first paragraph. The government’s goal should be to meet the needs of the public. Austerity, which would be necessary to balance the budget, simply shifts the debt burden to the public, a currency user, and away from the currency issuer that is the federal government. That is economic lunacy and Michael Hudson of the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College briefly discussed this shift in a previous RNRH episode.
Now, this does not mean that I am advocating for corporate subsidies. With proper economic knowledge, it is easy to develop ways to maintain well-paying employment without militarization. Militarization occurs via corporate subsidies, to put it very briefly. With proper economic knowledge, it is easy to develop a single-provider healthcare system, such as the British NHS, which expands quality medical care to all citizens. Naturally, part of the proper economics is maintaining full employment and so government will have to develop ways to keep everyone employed, but that is entirely feasible if political effort is made to achieve that goal.
I’ve made the recommendation many times, and I’ll make it again, that the RNRH should have Randy Wray of the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College on to discuss these matters of interest to many listeners. Wray would also be a good guest to discuss banking regulation given the subject of his recent book, ‘Why Minsky Matters,’ published by the Princeton University Press in 2018. I hope that by now, Steve, Francesco, or someone else affiliated with the RNRH has summarized Wray’s work for Mr. Nader. Surely Mr. Nader is familiar with Bard College given where Mr. Nader is from and we know Mr. Nader is aware of Princeton! I would have to assume that Mr. Nader would be interested in the progressive knowledge coming from these institutions.