Before I drifted off to sleep last night, I heard a correspondent reporting on the economic situation in Japan. If you only follow CNN, Fox or MSNBC, you may think that only the U.S. is suffering with layoffs, less money circulating in the economy, etc. Click here to get up to speed on what is happening in another of the world's largest economies, Japan.
My hope would be that our country's legislature would take a look at the rest of the world's economic situation, including the economies from which the U.S imports automobiles and electronics. I'm not bright enough to figure out if our country's economic woes have triggers crises in other countries, vice versa or all of us are dealing with economic troubles all at the same time.
If you're still thinking that the economies of other countries can't possibly affect the U.S. consider that the Screen Actor's Guild is reaching out to its members this week to discuss the situation with their contract with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers. While a strike conducted by the Writers Guild was, more or less, successful this time last year (though it lasted for months), there appears to be a hesitancy within SAG about whether they want to vote to strike starting next month.
While most can name at least ten well paid steadily working actors, the vast majority of SAG members work only occasionally and work second jobs outside of the industry to make ends meet. These are also the members who rely on their SAG membership for health benefits. I would be very surprised to see a strike occurring any time soon.
On the other hand, last year's Writer's Guild was well supported by actors and it is likely they would, in turn, provide support to actors should they vote to strike. Perhaps by SAG members being visible while on strike, others may find encouragement in seeing that labor still has some clout by standing together and working with management to come to an agreement that benefits all.
Or, maybe like what happened this past January with late night TV, management will start putting out management-starring films this summer.
Harvey Weinstein starring in this summer's next action-packed blockbuster, anyone? Perhaps Bollywood will finally make its way to middle America by the 4th of July?
1 comment:
Yes, the problems we're experiencing in the USA are one of the biggest causes of the economic problems of other nations.
You see, the world's economies are so interconnected that what happens in one country financially impacts the other, since investors and/or companies invest in other nations and their currency.
Here's an analogy. When you throw a stone in a pond, you get ripples radiating outwards from the impact point. The bigger the stone, the greater the ripples.
When everything started falling apart here, it rippled outwards and exposed the same weaknesses in other countries that lead to our problems here. That's one of the problems with a globalized economy - a failure in one part leads to a failure in another part, and it ripples outwards. Eventually, the ripples quiet down for a while until another stone gets tossed in.
Business, like life, runs in cycles. There's always pebbles being thrown in. You can ignore them, but once in a while, you get a really big stone that makes a big mess.
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