More on the writer's strike

I read this in our local paper this morning - an interesting take on the writer's strike, focusing on the economic impact on LA.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/susan-estrich.html?columnsName=ses
1/18/08
The TV Diet
by Susan Estrich

Of course, it isn't just the writers who suffer when shows close down and production is canceled. If writers don't work, actors don't work, and cameramen and women don't work, and grips and electricians and carpenters don't work; if those people don't work, the people who feed them, the caterers, don't work, and the transportation people have no one and nothing to transport, and the location scouts have no locations to scout, and the designers have nothing to design, and the makeup people have no one to make up, and so it goes. There is a chain of work and workers that makes up the business of Hollywood, and right now the chain is broken and has been for nearly three months.

The presidential campaign is about to arrive in what we call the Golden State. When they come, they will find that home prices, most people's biggest asset, are falling, and unemployment and insecurity are growing. Six months ago, the big issue here was the war. Now, it's the strike. And it is very much a middle class issue. We can live without our soaps and dramas and comedies, but we cannot live without an industry that is vital to our economic well-being. It's not clear that presidential candidates can do very much about that, but they will surely be asked.