Well, I’m a WGA writer, and I’m sure losing money, tons of it, that I’ll never get back. But my father, also a WGA writer, lost money in strikes that won me various economic benefits which I have enjoyed my whole life and which my children now enjoy and which I hope their children, if they become writers (and it seems to be the family business) will enjoy. So where you get the idea that we can hold out because we’re not losing anything I don’t know: you should be on the line with me and hear the pain. As for writers going back to work in big numbers—it doesn’t look like that from where I stand. But you never know...
Who cares???
While I can empathize with your dilemma, having walked a picket line or two myself, your craft has given itself an image problem.
It’s one thing to talk “in house” about how hard your job is, the pressure, etc., but when I see some screenwriter in his 4 million dollar home whining about how hard it is to cut 5 pages of explanatory text down to 2 sentences, and then how hard starting the next project is, they (and you by association) lose all credibility.
I’m an engineer, and if I screw up, people DIE. Whine about your job’s pressure to your co workers. I LOVE the pressure!