I agree they have some serious issues and inequality to work out, but I also concede that the sorts of productions we are talking about (science fiction in particular) tend to be expensive to produce. Having a large entity with deep pockets (like a studio) to foot the bill until money rolls in makes this easier.
We really need to get the powers that be to stop pretending that me consuming media streaming on my phone is somehow different than you consuming the same media OTA on television, or Alice watching on a laserdisc, or Bob on his home IMAX theater. The studios are either making content or they are not. They are either distributing that content, or they are not. And they are either paying the people who generate that content a fair, livable wage…or they are not. It really doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that, and anyone who claims it is likely has a profit incentive in the current system to do so.
You make a good point there. I hadn’t considered it from that perspective.
Whatever the solution, the ratio between executive pay and the pay of the people actually getting their hands dirty should be a lot closer to 1. Right now it is tragically far from that.