I may not be a screenwriter (yet) but I am a writer and I fully support the WGA strike because TV and movie writers deserve better working conditions and a bigger cut of streaming income. If it comes to pass tomorrow at midnight, I also support the SAG-AFTRA strike, and the UPS strike that may happen at the end of the month.

Are strikes unpleasant? Yup, especially for the people who are striking because their income has been slashed or removed entirely. Are strikes necessary? As long as we’re living in an end-stage capitalism society where 3,194 billionaires control almost half the world’s wealth while people whose job used to be able to support a family now need side hustles, multiple jobs, and employed spouses just to be able to stay above the poverty line, you betcha. It never ceases to amaze me that corporations headed by multi-million-dollar earning CEOS can say, “Well, we just can’t afford to pay what they’re asking” while enriching themselves and their shareholders on the worker’s labor. This worship we have in the States of millionaires and billionaires has got to stop. And don’t even get me started on the AI boondoggle.

Interestingly enough, Chat GPT was asked which job would be more easily replaced by AI, a writer or a CEO. It said the CEO because most of what they do is data analysis and could be better handled by a computer, and even the social interaction part might be more effective with AI. It would also save these companies some incredibly huge salaries. Something to think about…