Millionaire Entertainers

For most of modern history, parents would do anything to prevent their child from becoming an entertainer. It was a very low status and low paid job. Then thanks to technology came mass media, and for the last sixty years, entertainers have become millionaires, and obtained high status.

Now technology is threatening to return entertainers to their previous status. Digital copying and digital downloads circumvent the system. Cable, satellite and the internet provide cheap access to content producers and huge choice for content consumers. Big business knows this too, which is why they are so adamant about internet violations and copyright laws. But there is no law, and no reason that entertainers have to be millionaires. I will shed no tears if actors started getting tens of thousands of dollars intead of millions for their movies, and the same for singers and their albums.