"How dare those egotistical slobs demand something of us? We own the companies, we make the shows and the movies. We produce the entertainment that they rely on to brighten their day. We are TV. We are cinema. How DARE they demand that we pay them when the only thing they're responsible for is writing every word that our actors say?"

Well, Mr. CEO, you've always favored explosions and gunfire anyway, so perhaps you can patch up the missing dialog with more action. The plot isn't important, just have the actors scream a lot and shoot at eachother for an hour and you're guaranteed to have a box office hit. Everyone complained that 300 had too much plot at the beginning and not enough battle scenes, so that should be a clear indication that not only is it not necessary, but it actually takes away from the movie. As soon as the title fades from the movie screen, have Leonidas stab a Persian in the eye with a spear and keep the violence going until the credits roll. Words need not make an appearance at any moment.

Though the idea of movies having no creativity and relying entirely on special effects as a quality barometer may appeal to someone like Michael Bay, it's unlikely to produce any more "great movies". Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas isn't a cult classic because of the scene where Duke is firing his gun out in the desert, and American Beauty didn't win all those Oscars for the blood at the end. The Daily Show won't exist anymore without all those inconvenient people at the bottom writing the words that Jon Stewart is saying, and Colbert will die with him. The two top ranking shows on Comedy Central are gone, all because nobody wants to pay the real creators.

What arrogance. It's like a man is giving you money for doing nothing for several years. You enjoy being given this money and grow used to it, then the man says that he doesn't want to give you quite as much anymore. You get angry and demand that he keep giving you money, so he calls you an ingrate and stops giving you any at all. Some people have grown accustomed to doing nothing and profiting off the creativity of others, and yet have the nerve to try and negotiate with their source of income. The writers aren't even getting the majority of the profit that comes from their work, that goes upward.

So what could justify refusal to bargain with the Writer's Guild? They want a share of the profits that are made from DVD sales and the internet views and the folks in charge would deny them? They should be thanking the writers for making them so rich, and giving the writers anything that's requested without any hint of argument. Greed blowing up in the face of the greedy is a glorious spectacle to behold. An artist is selling a painting and he decides on the price, so the writers will do the same no matter how much the buyer complains. If they don't like it, no more art.

But this is a slap in the face of the people that actually enjoy the art. Those at the top look at it in their usual way by assigning it a dollar value and determining everything based on that number. Anyone who actually enjoys the show is affected by this numerical method of categorization, and it's not like the men with all the money have any real barrier preventing them from sharing the profits and keeping everyone happy. The greed of the few is trickling down and making the masses unhappy, and this does not sit well with the masses.

The most likely outcomes are either that the rich are starved for money and agree to exploit the writers slightly less than before for the sake of being diplomatic, or that the writers are no longer able to strike for economic reasons and must continue to put up with the conditions set up by the people who buy their scripts. The former would be the favorable outcome from people with a conscience, but they're not the ones making the decisions. It will be interesting to watch how this unfolds, and will serve as a good test of whether or not human decency will manage to prevail.