When a production company hires a mega-celebrity to star in their motion picture, it tends to cost so much money that everyone else involved in the production is squeezed financially to make room for the budget busting multi-million dollar deal.
This phenomenon manifests itself in smaller crews (fewer jobs), and those that are brought on have their day-rates challenged at every level. Keep in mind that these are people who work MUCH longer hours, more days in a row, than any actor on the set.
Each department will also see their budgets shrink, which means they are spending less on industry services.
In some cases, a studio or production company might make fewer movies in a given year in order to afford a mega-salary top billed actor.
This is economics 101, the free market rewarding value.
What’s disgusting is when said mega-celebrity accepts the budget busting salary, and then turns around and vilifies free market capitalism.
Actor, Jim Carrey hawking his latest movie:
“I was thinking about it this morning, how this story ties into everything we’re going through,” says Carrey, who, thanks to the technology, plays Scrooge as well as the three ghosts haunting him. “Every construct we’ve built in American life is falling apart. Why? Because of personal greed and ambition. Capitalism without regulation can’t protect us against personal greed.. . .
Producer’s note to Jim Carrey: You might consider hiring a writer before opening your mouth during marketing junkets, and/or cutting your deal rate by about 99.999%.
I dont think Jim is out of line here. Pure Unadulterated Captalism without REGULATION is chaos. Law imbues order. Which regulations are enforced, or how many regs are enacted is subject to debate.
Part of the problems we’re seeing today is a result of unenforced regulation of existing laws.
See Bill Moyers interview William Black regarding Bank Fraud here -
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/profile.html
Sorry Art, but our government is directly responsible for much of the problems we face today. There are so many laws and regulations covering so many things that there is very little freedom left. The market meltdown that occurred last September (just in time to affect a presidential election) was engineered. By whom is unclear.The credit crisis was directly caused by the Community Redevelopment Act that forced banks to lend to customers whom they knew were bad credit risks. Excessive environmental regulations add to the cost of doing business shich then gets passed to the consumer, making US businesses less competitive.
By the way, “A Christmas Carol” is about how a businessman is allowed to see the negative effects of his greed, which causes him to change his ways and become a well-liked member of the community. In a truly free market, the mitigating factor is an individuals’ conscience. If you don’t have one, you won’t do much business with people who do.