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Ignorance, Hollywood StyleWhen I asked

Ignorance, Hollywood Style

When I asked Motion Picture Association of America president Jack Valenti whether the director of the highest-grossing movie of all time was the ideal spokesperson against petty theft, he tap-danced. ”I found the most convincing part to be the working stiffs,” said Valenti of the PSA, ”the guys who have a modest home and kids who go to public schools. They make $75,000 to $100,000 a year. That’s not much to live on. I don’t have to tell you that,” he said, vastly overestimating the U.S. poverty level and what I get paid for this column. I vowed right then not only to pirate a movie but also to find a way to use the Internet to steal directly from Jack Valenti’s home.

Joel Stein comments on an anti-piracy movie trailer starring Ben Affleck and James Cameron in his Entertainment Weekly column

Working stiffs make $75-100k a year? According to this Washington Post article, white Americans earned a median household income of $52k while Asians earned $64k, Africans Americans earned $33.5k, and Hispanics earned $37.6k. The article didn’t specify when the sample period was, but I assume it was sometime in the last three years. Keep in mind that these numbers are medians. The average incomes will most likely be substantially less.

The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. Assume a person works full-time (40 hours a week) all year without taking any vacation (52 weeks). If this person only earns the minimum wage, he will gross a paltry $10,712 annually. Believe it or not, this is actually above the federal poverty level for a single person.

As if we aren’t subjected to enough crap before a movie actually starts, now we have to endure Ben Affleck and the self proclaimed king of the world condeming piracy because it steals not from them, but from all the working stiffs who work in the movies and apparently only make a low six figure salary. The last thing I want is to pay around $10 to watch a movie only to be lectured about stealing. These people make millions. If they are worried about the working stiffs not making a decent wage, they should spread a little of their cut around. Some of these actors make 100 times what a working stiff on one of their movies make.

This entry was posted Thursday, April 17th, 2003 at 1:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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