Okay, I just can't take it any longer.
I can't stand television anymore. I have shows that I watch. Um...a few anyway. Let's see, there's, um, OK...hang on a second...Oh yeah! Heroes, The Big Bang Theory, Glee, Lie to Me, House, Criminal Minds, Chuck, Myth busters, Dirty Jobs, The Vampire Diaries, Star gate Universe, Psych, Fringe, Dollhouse and a few more, that I can't remember right now.
I watch all of these shows. Mostly they are on Monday Nights, or Friday Nights. Occasionally a Wednesday or Sunday thrown in for good measure. Otherwise, there's not a thing on television except for "reality" junk that I have never really gotten into. I know it seems like I watch a lot of television, but this is something that my husband, and my son and I do together. We watch TV together. As a family, in the same room, usually sitting together on the same couch, snuggled up under the same blanket because it's cold in my house, because I've been out of work for 7 months, and we can't afford a huge gas bill.
Now, we haven't been to the movies in a few weeks, but I've been wanting to take my son to see the "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakwel" since before Christmas. However, it's expensive to go to the movies. I mean, if we go during the day, it's only $15-$18 dollars to get in for all 3 of us. If we wait until after 6 pm it goes up to almost $24 for the 3 of us to get in. Now that may not sound like a lot to most people, but you have to remember, we are managing to SURVIVE and LIVE on less than $2700 take-home a month. Plus, I managed Christmas, and all my bills were paid last month. (I only bought for our immediate family, and anybody else, well...tough. I just didn't have it this year!)
If studio executives wouldn't pay their talent such ridiculous sums of money to star in a movie, then it may not actually cost so much to produce said movie, and the trickle down effect is, viola...less for the consumer to pay at the theater. Again, causing a trickle down effect, of being able to pay the rest of the movie staff a little bit more, still keeping consumers happy, and possibly creating more jobs for the end of the line, like at the theater concession stand. I mean, come on...if the studio is going to pay Angelina Jolie around $20 MILLION dollars per film, plus a percentage of the overall profits, why should they keep using her? She is possibly part of the problem of the overall economic downfall of this country. (I know...I'm taking a flying leap with that one specifically, but I mean more of a general contributor to the feeling of entitlement and me, me, me mentality of the country.)
Even the little guys wanted in on all the cash to be made. Why do you think there was a writers strike a while back? Everyone wanted a piece of the "Digital" market. From online videos, to digital rights, to how much the writer actually "owned" everything he actually wrote.
We have become a society bent on having more, possessing more, being more than the neighbors next door. We all want what we can't have. I want more money, but only enough so I don't have to pay my bills late almost every month. I also want more money to occasionally buy something that we need or want. You know, like new socks and underwear for my son, or a nice bike for his birthday, or even a trip to the movies more than once every other month. I'd like to get a baby sitter, and go out to dinner with my husband, alone, and not because it's the one time a year we go to a fancy schmancy place and celebrate our anniversary.
I know the entertainment industry isn't really the root of all these problems, but it's nice to place the blame on someone other than Wall Street for a change. I get so sick of blaming the cause of this financial crisis on everybody but onto whom it truly belongs. It belongs on each and every single person who felt entitled to something they shouldn't. It belongs on every single unscrupulous banker that gave them a bad loan, and then refinanced the bad loan into a worse loan! It belongs on all of our shoulders. We ALL want what we can't have, and it's not going to change anytime soon.
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