Anime is a $25B industry that pays its animators pennies

Post by nitwit005 » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 5:57 AM UTC

astrange wrote: post #142

nitwit005 wrote: post #78

> because people just don't particularly care enough to look through the glass. No, I suspect absolutely everyone with any knowledge of animation knows animators are paid terribly. The article itself has a meme image about the pay.

Western animators aren't paid that terribly, just anime animators, and only some of them. But part of the compromise that Western animation does to be more productive is that it all looks bad. There's a fake-anime style Superman cartoon on I saw that has the artistic quality of maybe a Japanese elementary schooler. And then Netflix makes animated sex comedies that look like old Flash cartoons.

Post by ekianjo » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 6:01 AM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #228

ekianjo wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you inherently saying that the Japanese anime industry is not following regulations? Because they are, and they have been surviving this way for decades and have no problem finding people who want to work there.

You skipped over the first clause of the sentence: "If you can't pay a living wage"

Post by charlieyu1 » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 6:05 AM UTC

chasing wrote: post #34

Apreche wrote: post #9

While the industry as a whole makes a lot, the majority of individual anime and manga make next to nothing. It’s a few very popular properties that make all the dough. If people were paid fairly, most productions would be untenable. There would be just a few anime per year instead of many. But also, how would the popular ones come to be? Every new property would be a huge gamble. As an anime and manga fan, I actually…

The "if we paid people fairly things would be prohibitively expensive" argument is a terrible one, just to note. First, it rarely seems to actually be the case since the requirement that employees be paid fairly mostly just drives away low-value efforts. It's also an attitude that, if taken to its logical extreme, demands society have an underpaid underclass that suffers so the rest of us can have nice things.

Post by johnnyanmac » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 6:08 AM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #255

johnnyanmac wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, "minimum wage" is the federal definition of "fair pay". So in that lens it isn't fair. >Second, of course increased costs of production lead to consequences for end users or people who buy the content. We see that all of the time in every industry. When possible. The issue is a lot of anime in Japan still relies in broadcast, so it's much harder to increase the cost of entry. Streaming is becoming more popula…

The Federal Minimum Wage was last updated in 2009. Since then, costs for food have gone significantly up and costs for rent have skyrocketed.

Post by sangnoir » Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 6:17 AM UTC

oatmeal1 wrote: post #254

Arainach wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Businesses do not have an inherent right to exist. If you can't pay a living wage, comply with regulations, and be profitable, your business model is not valid and your business should fail and close. Predictions of dire consequences rarely pan out. Fast food employees in Seattle are earning $15-20/+ per hour and prices did not double - in fact they're not significantly higher than in neighboring counties with lower…

> If you can't pay a living wage, comply with regulations, and be profitable, your business model is not valid and your business should fail and close. The required amount of money to earn a "living wage" is extremely high because of government interference in the economy! And whether you personally find a business model morally "valid" is not a good reason to make economic changes. People deserve a cost-benefit anal…