[alxp]

Unions in Hollywood have made it so that an actor can get non-leading roles semi-regularly and still be able to make an OK living. The adjunct and post-doc system in academia is exploiting the hopes that an ever-shrinking pool of tenure track positions are still in your future so you should keep working away for less than you're worth to stay in the running.

Hollywood is still largely an exploitative, winner-take-all system but there are some built-in protections in the system to make it more sustainable. Academia seems to be on the verge of coming undone if they don't do something to keep the exploited class from revolting or just quitting en-masse.