If Elon & Amazon Can Boldly Beg . . .
. . . Why Not a #UnionStrong Background Actor in the 90028? Or You?
(Bullet points HERE. But still read the article . . .)
Yesterday I received a letter. My suicide ideation — immediately triggered.
I survived.
No hotline. No hospital. I’ve earned an effective doctorate in the limitations and predatory hazards of both. Everything you may think you know about preventing suicide — probably wrong. Or worse. I could give a TED Talk on the subject right now. No notes. It would upset many doctors and people with impressive LinkedIn profiles. How insolent of me.
I can easily make a stranger laugh. (Feel better now?) I could take a stage right now in front of 2 or 20 or 20,000 people and entertain. I never attended theatre or film school. But all the coping mechanisms I’ve developed enduring a lifetime of christians, businessmen and “good citizens” affords me a certain set of skills. Except when I suddenly run out of mental and emotional bandwidth. A moment I cannot foresee. An experience as trivial as a letter in the mail. My kryptonite.
But I survived. And my near-death experience last night got me thinking. I’ve been too polite. My apologies. I’m now resolved to fix that. Just surviving is no longer tolerable. The time, life hacks, health care, emergency survival choices and emotional bandwidth money can buy — I fucking deserve that shit. We all do. I have a responsibility to stand up and demand change. No one else has. Enough. This will make both of us uncomfortable, dear reader. My apologies. To some of you.
May I speak boldly? Local and federal governments failed us. Businesses and their lobbyists failed us. Charitable organizations failed us. Humans in America in 2022 remain hungry, unwell, and unhoused.
I walk past the glaring evidence every day. Evidence in the form of fellow human beings we criminalize, dehumanize and attempt to throw away. “Not in my neighborhood”.
My neighborhood is the 90028 zip code in Los Angeles. Hollywood. I’m literally stumbling distance from the Dolby Theater. You know. Where the Academy hands out Oscars. Sometimes to thespians who never once assaulted anyone on live television. A union actor, I nevertheless am forced to resort to a “mixed-income”. Why? Ask Fortune 500 companies who hire non-union talent for so many of their commercials. I do not seek fame or fortune. I’ve been ruled a celebrity by a federal judge. It wasn’t fun and I don’t recommend it.
Throughout my life I routinely turn down fractions of a fortune because it feels like the right thing to do at the time. I’m no Gordon Gekko. I’m an Eagle Scout who was asked to kill his indie student paper. I said no. The FBI called that “Subversive”. It would seem America believes I’m unfit to serve in the military because . . . I might undermine it? Since I was 19. I’m that asshole. It cost me jobs, and a college degree. Not to mention my peace of mind. And you wonder why I might have thoughts of suicide from time to time . . .
So when I act, or I wear women’s short shorts and rainbow tactical legwarmers, I do that NOT because I want to be the next James Bond. Or some absurd reality puppet. Or some random non-union app sensation. I act and make strangers laugh because it drowns out the voices in my head. Voices telling me that some all-powerful penis-endowed god created me as a special piece of shit that deserves to rot in hell for eternity. (But he loves me?) Voices that tell me I should sell the next schmuck a crappy product or service — because I can.
Church and business taught me I was or should be a horrible person who deserves torture and death. Hollywood exposed me to broken people who found a way to heal hurting humans with comedy, music and stories. Alex, I’ll take Hollywood for a hundred. But only on a union contract. Background voucher works, too.
If you think the recent election will change things, just remember that both parties over the decades got us here. There’s nothing to be proud of. We voters need to look in the mirror and accept some responsibility.
We let Fortune 500 companies and billionaires boldly beg. We heard their siren call. We generously gave them the cash. That’s what American Civilization let happen. We let Elon Musk and Bernie Madoff and Harvey Weinstein and Jeff Bezos and that crypto kid of privilege in shorts and a tee shirt happen. We normalized the act of begging. Boldly. If you were wealthy. Or a politician. Or from the right family or school. Or if you were “too big to fail”.
To Boldly Beg is not merely American. It’s what the most “successful” Americans have done. Elon Musk boldly begged $4.9 billion. Amazon boldly begged $5.1 billion. LAPD boldly begged a $24,000 rent subsidy. Per officer. Hey, it’s what all the cool kids are doing!
Hi, I’m Mark. I live in the 90028. Hollywood. I make strangers laugh. Sometimes people who could really use one. Often I don’t get paid for it. Sometimes I’m threatened or assaulted or (oddly for a straight guy in what appears to most to clearly be a theatrical costume) the target of homophobia. The fair market rent here for a 1 bedroom apartment is $1,747. Triple that to $5,241 for an income a Joe Pesci super might believe could afford it. $5,241 is the Minimum Survival Income for anyone who works in my zip code. (You may have heard of Universal Basic Income.)
$5,241 a month is the Minimum Survival Income in my zip code.
Workers have a right to afford to live in the same zip code where they work. To do otherwise creates more problems for everyone. Like blasting laser beams at the polar ice caps. Paying workers in my town less than $30/hour is wage theft. Until we change the labor laws, strengthen labor unions, and push back the real estate lobby, people like me are forced to Boldly Beg.
No, get mad. Totally understandable. But I’m not the problem. Do you get that? WE are the problem. We let Elon Musk boldly beg billions. As humans in desperate need of food, shelter and medical treatment die on the streets. In our neighborhoods.
Therefore I am proud to dust off my campaign and #BoldlyBeg for my Minimum Survival Income. I’ll continue to take union acting jobs, busk on occasion, and sell books and collectibles on ebay. Because that’s the best use of my talents at the moment. But basic survival is the worst reason to work a job or small business. Desperation breeds predatory corporate behavior. It destroys families and ruins lives. Ask the children in China assembling our next iPhone. What a shitty way to be civilized.
If I happen to recover enough from the pandemic, The Big Short, my anxiety, my depression, my suicide ideation AND get that root canal and cavities filled I’ve needed since before the pandemic AND manage to move to a room in the 90028 I don’t have to share AND I have something left over . . . I will donate to the UBI of a fellow human who is also forced to #BoldlyBeg. Especially a fellow worker attempting to organize a labor union at Starbucks or Uber or an Amazon warehouse. I’m not a monster. We’ve got plenty of billionaires auditioning to be the next Bond villain. Why steal their thunder?
Los Angeles currently has a pilot program for a type of Universal Basic Income (UBI). My understanding is that it targets individuals with small children (I have no small kids). And at $1000, it’s still shy $4241. As far as I know, LA County, California and the federal government lack UBI programs. So I’ve got to compete with Elon for the begging. Because my governments fail to step up. Fantastic.
If you are like me, and you also need a UBI, I hope my awkward attempt at something here gives you a tiny sliver of hope. Steal what I’m doing and make it your own. Start your own UBI crowd-funding campaign! Share your link with me so I can share it with others. Maybe someone would rather donate to you than to me. I’m totally cool with that. Maybe you know a better way to do this. Share it with the rest of the camp!
For November, I’ve received $500 in donations for my Minimum Survival Income. Which means I need to raise $4741 more. If 949 people each donate $5, I’m there. If you prefer the typical political campaign donation request of $10 clogging our emails lately, then only 475 people need protect me from billionaire greed. I accept Cash App, Venmo and (if you must) PayPal. True, my 51st birthday is Thanksgiving (please don’t tell casting). But don’t give because it’s my birthday. Give because it is the right thing to do. But only if you can. Elon boldly begged for $44 billion to buy Twitter. That seems to be working out, right? Jim Cramer instructs us to focus not on results. But desire. When it comes to Elon.
Hey, I’m not asking for billions. Just $5241 a month. Until we reclaim our civilization from the real estate lobby and Fortune 500 union-busters.
Why?
Because the companies that made the car you drive and the food in your refrigerator are actively and illegally trying to bust my union. And Tom Hanks thinks that’s just fine. Sorry, but Forrest Gump is not a nice guy. Just ask Ed Asner.
