Hollywood is the last bastion of Capitalism ----- REALLY? | Eastern NC Now

    I rarely have original thoughts, most of the things that pop into my head come from something I may have read, heard, or seen somewhere but they rarely come from imagination. I am not that smart or creative. Somewhere in my distant past I read a quote from Albert Einstein the roughly paraphrased means, never memorize something that can be looked up in a book. With that as my defense I seldom try to remember the source or of information since it is readily available on the internet. That works for talking and conversations but putting things down in Black and White or White and Black (Look at the blackout light at top of the post) dictates that you try to not actively steal others ideas. That is of course unless you think your audience will not notice. But I digress.

    I worked in a business full of facts, part numbers, product names, formulas,etc. Most of us do. Since I believe there is a finite amount of memory RAM in my brain, I try to follow that advice not to clutter my memory with useless details.

    Well, I woke up this morning with the title above roaming around in my gray matter. As I usually do, I immediately sat down to outline my thoughts. Well not immediately, as there were other pressing issues this morning, but after dealing with those and getting that first cup of coffee, I did what any good plagiarizers should do. I sat down and Googled "Hollywood is the last bastion of Capitalism". The result was About 102,000 results (0.45 seconds). That confirmed at least two things mentioned above. I am neither smart nor creative.

    But let me just make a few observations:

    Capitalism is based on free trade between individuals. One offers a product or service and another either buys it or not. Movies are a good example of this principal. Tremendous amounts of risk and effort is made to produce a movie without any prior knowledge that it will pay back the cost and provide a profit.

    It is one of the ultimate risk taking business activities because it involves large sums of "Other People's money". Most of the time the "Other People" want their money back with a healthy profit on top. IE: Capitalism.

    Making movies requires a suspension of belief from reality. I think that is why they are largely made by Liberals. It is just my opinion and I do not advocate eliminating Liberals. I think we should always keep a few around just to remind us how screw up things can get.

    Bear with me I am getting to my point. To be a good Liberal you must have an inordinate amount of guilt. It may have started when your mother told you that you should eat your food because there were people starving in China. Well, ok they may still be starving there but not because of Capitalism. See the guilt. If you make it rich, it is never through your efforts but some cosmic fluke. If someone else makes it rich, it has to be because they are crooks or thieves preying on the poor who we all know are pristine because they are poor.

    A good Liberal as most actors are must tell us of the many times he slaved waiting tables or parking cars before he earned the big bucks. His profession is based on the trying to make a non-reality appear to be a reality.

    Now let us get back to why Capitalism is so prevalent in Hollywood. Remember a few paragraphs up I mentioned "Other People". Now they are the capitalist who invest the money with the hope of return. They use and abuse the system and twist all manner of rules and laws chasing that almighty dollar.

    The poor actors, writers and producers are just innocent bystanders in the charade. They form unions to protect the pay scale and set up rules and thousands of positions to insure full employment for the industry. Then when they are confronted with a project that they think is a sure hit but cannot get the financing from the "Other People" they decide to make the movie in Georgia or North Carolina where there are no union rules or bloated staffs to add to the cost.

    Naturally, the creative talent is first to be paid, which is the Liberal way. The big stars get their money up front or if they are really big they get a piece of the action which almost seems like Capitalism but it's not. It is just fair pay for their talent.

    I set the IPad timer when I started the rant and my 15 minutes are almost up so I will finish with the link below, which came up in my Google search. I have not read it yet because I wanted the ideas to be my own, wherever I may have stolen them. I also did not employ an editor, publicist, driver, gripper or any other person to complete this post. I did however use the services of a Publisher who offered his services free of charge (For now at least).

    Check the link and see how many ideas I have stolen.

    Why Hollywood Hates Capitalism