This from Bloomberg is food for thought:
-- Time Warner Inc.’s spinoff of its cable division dropped the New York-based owner of Time magazine and Warner Bros. to third place among U.S. media companies, behind Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.
Disney, based in Burbank, California, reported fiscal 2008 sales of $37.8 billion. Excluding $17.2 billion in cable revenue, Time Warner’s 2008 sales totaled $29.8 billion ...
Thirty seven point eight billion dollars. Think of it. That kind of money would today power the government of a medium-sized country ... or be the whole G.D.P. of a small one. (When John F. Kennedy was President, the entire U.S. government was run on a $99 billion budget. A simpler, less expensive time was 1963.)
What that kind of dough means to me as I stare at the eleven-digit number is this: The power levers are all with ginormous corporations now, not individuals, not weak sister unions. Not even, in some instances, with the Federal government.
We are all held hostage by monster corporations. And it isn't just the mega banks which do the hostage taking.
A half-century and more ago, labor unions had enough power to gain health plans, pension plans, and residuals for the represented employees of the companies with which they had contracts. The playing field wasn't as steeply banked then. If the guilds or the IATSE threatened a strike, it had dire consequences for the Disneys, Warner brothers, and Harry Cohns of that long gone era.
And today? Unions vs. Corporations is more like a flea jumping off an elephant's back than anything else. The corporate elephant doesn't even notice.
See, none of the studios were monster-size companies in the forties, fifties and sixties. They had to deal to stay alive. Now, of course, they can outlast any labor organization known to humankind. (Banks like Citigroup and B of A have outlasted their natural life-spans because they are "too big too fail." Nice work if you can get it.)
I used to think of myself as a Democrat; before that, I thought of myself as a Republican. Now, during my somber moments, I don't think of myself as much of anything except a Classical Cynic, because we live in a corporatist age ... far beyond Left and Right. And I'm old enough ... and smart enough, to know it.
See, corporations are everything now, our Alpha and our Omega, strange monsters that reap large profits when times are good, and command taxpayer bailouts when times are less good. Both Democrats and Republicans play along, because the almighty corporation is our universe, our total way of life.
And if you're fortunate enough to be at the top of the corporatist pyramid, life is bountiful, and you will receive riches far beyond what Walter Elias Disney, Louis B. Mayer and Darryl Zanuck ever conceived of.
And if you're a working stiff ... well, you'll just have to find some way to get by, devise a method to pay the mortgage, find a job that pays more than fifteen bucks an hour, find a way -- if you're energetic, talentied and wired into the right people -- to get hired onto a television show or movie that will pay you a comfortable wage.
Good luck to you. Good luck to all of us.
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14 comments:
The plus side of this is that these giants are employing more people at better wages than the studios of yore.
Holy smokes! Great post, Steve.
I wish more people would come to this realization.
As a society, we are completely controlled by these corporations and banks. Both parties are corrupt, and have their pockets lined by these guys.
It is an extremely small group of people that run this entire show. Our government is bought and paid for. They serve only one interest...themselves and their friends. Most certainly not the people.
Once upon a time we had a wonderful document that was put in place to protect us from a corrupt government and this kind of corporatism. The Constitution of the United States has been trampled on, spit on, and torn to shreds by both parties.
I fear for us as a nation right now. We are quickly going the way of Rome. They started with something noble, and ended with tyranny and corruption.
The only thing that can turn this around is for all the people to go back to the constitution to learn where we came from...and collectively vote everyone of these bums out. If they don't protect the constitution, we get them out of there. Get vocal and get active to force them to work for us again rather than the banks and corporations.
We can do it...but only if people start to finally care and realize what it was that made us a great country to begin with.
The plus side of this is that these giants are employing more people at better wages than the studios of yore.
It'spretty to think so. And how I wish that it were true.
But look at the stats. Since 1973, inflation-adjusted wages have declined for the middle class.
Some specifics: when I was a traffic boy at Disney, overtime for IATSE employees was double and triple. Now it's time and a half and double. Health benefits were far more generous ... even as pensions were not.
Unionized workers still have a money edge over non-union employees, but the percentage of union employment has declined sharply since the 1970s, even as wages for CEOs has risen.
The corporatist media tells us "well, that's just the way things are." But I never buy smoething just because some well-combed head on the teevee tells me it's so.
Maybe I'm thick.
No--you're not. The facts are in your favor. In particular, the gap got larger during the reagan years, began closing under President Clinton, and wider still under bush/dick.
"But look at the stats. Since 1973, inflation-adjusted wages have declined for the middle class."
Careful. You're applying a statistic for the society at large, when I was talking specifically about the entertainment industry.
Has inflation-adjusted wages for people in the entertainment industry risen or fallen since Walt and Mayer and Zanuck ran the show?
I don't seem to recall that the denizens at the Termite Terrace were even as well off as I am, and those guys are legends who built an animation dynasty, whereas I'm a fiddling little CG button-pusher.
"But look at the stats. Since 1973, inflation-adjusted wages have declined for the middle class."
Yep, and with the bailouts we can look for even lower wages...taxed to death.
The American people better get ready to deal with MUCH lower living standards for the foreseeable future.
There is no way we can ever pay back what they are spending. I wonder what this country will look like in 10 years.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=armOzfkwtCA4&refer=home
It won't be pretty. Everyone better learn how to grow a garden.
The plus side of this is that these giants are employing more people at better wages than the studios of yore.
In what way?
Have you taken a look at the tv side of animation lately? It's sucking...HARD. The pay has been stalled for most of this decade, and the schedules are getting more and more and more insane. Yet artists are willing to sell themselves out by bowing down to that crap and then get laid off at the drop of a hat.
What's the payoff? You're making the executives richer and richer while you're barely hanging on. Is working all that unpaid overtime really worth it in the long run? REALLY?
Going on strike won't help us now, but it'd be interesting to see what kind of panic would set in if the artists had the guts to work just what they're paid for.
Greta post Steve.
I disagree with you often and when I do things can get snarky.. but i truly appreciate your take more often than not. This post makes you one of my favorites. I agree wholeheartedly.
*Another tidbit on the figure of $37.8 billion is that Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle is worth $22 billion. The girth of which is in cash.
The word 'billion' gets thrown around a lot and we all get desensitized to it so stop and think about how much money that is. One thousand millions = 1 billion. He has 22 billion. Thats like Saudi oil wealth. Something is seriously wrong there. The man gave 150 million to charity in 2004.
If you had $22 billion, wouldn't you give at least $11 billion to charity? Wouldn't you have to have some serious issues and insecurities if you didn't?
wtf...
Some Bill Watterson:
tinyurl.com/cw3o6k
I don't seem to recall that the denizens at the Termite Terrace were even as well off as I am, and those guys are legends who built an animation dynasty, whereas I'm a fiddling little CG button-pusher.
Sixty years ago, workers in the animation industry owned houses and their families lived on one income.
The industry was smaller then than now, but incomes were -- adjusted for inflation -- higher and more stable.
I don't know a lot of families today that live on a single income. In the fifties and sixties, that was the norm. There were animators at H-B in 1960 who were making $500 per week, a huge sum for the time.
Many of my co-workers own houses and live on one income.
I support a family of three on one income. We are in the financial position to buy a home, though we're waiting for the market to come down.
And I'm a button-pusher.
I'm not saying that the oligarchs are right, or that the pay levels aren't unbalanced between top and bottom; they are.
I'm just saying that if you wanted to find a bright spot, you could. And that's that uncle walt's supporting a lot more families now than he did when he was alive.
It's not corporation vs. labor - that's the ruse. It's the Federal Reserve vs. the money in your wallet.
The Fed feeds the giant banks who are guaranteed by the government - you, the taxpayer. When the shite hits the fan, as it inevitably always does every ten years or so, the Fed turns around and funds the banks that are too big to fail, so that they can continue to service the massive LOANS of the giant corporations. It's moral hazard at its worst, and it's why you will never make enough money to keep up with the 'economy.' It's why your 401K will never pay your 'retirement' and your healthcare will never cover the cost of your medical bills. You think WD and TW actually pays out of pocket for your salary? It's all money borrowed from the EXACT SAME BANK THAT OWNS YOUR HOUSE OR THE UNIT YOU RENT.
This time, it is actually massive enough that you can see the play happening in real time. It goes on all the time but when it gets really out of hand you actually get to see their dirty laundry.
You don't get giant corporations without giant banks. The bailouts are happening right now, every single day, on the front page of every single paper. No wonder capitalism works so well here. It's nice to see there are a few sane people in London smart enough to break a few bank windows.
It's the central banking play, and the bank always wins. GM is a giant corporation, and they LOST against Citibank, B of A, and AIG. THEY LOST. Never friggin' mind the UAW up there next to the automakers in the hearings. It's the banks.
How do you think we are paying for Iraq and Afghanistan? The chickens have come home yet again, and we are now stuck with our Costco capitalism until the end of time. Oh, and inflation. The real salary killer. Get ready for it. It'll come at us again.
"The facts are in your favor. In particular, the gap got larger during the reagan years, began closing under President Clinton, and wider still under bush/dick."
Clinton just continued the illusion and fundamentally did no more than any other US president to change anything. He pawned off the troubles to the next guy, too. Liberals do anything to make sure they 'look' like authentic liberals, conservatives do anything to make sure the 'look' like authentic conservatives. In the end, they are all full of shit. And we pay the bill. And sit back and watch them build all their f***ing libraries so they can have their shot at rewriting history yet again.
If you had $22 billion, wouldn't you give at least $11 billion to charity? Wouldn't you have to have some serious issues and insecurities if you didn't?
Truth.
But I suspect his answer would be, "Yeah, but you didnt create Oracle, and I did, and it's great to be me." That's human nature, and no amount of legislation or government interference can change that.
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