The cast of the Big Bang Theory is looking for large increases from their current salaries as they head in to their 7th season.  As the number one show on TV, they certainly have every right to cash in on their success.  Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch have already cashed in, moving from recurring status to regular cast members.  Meanwhile, Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons are banding together; looking to increase their salaries from $350,000 per episode to $1,000,000 per episode.  Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar are asking for slightly less.  After sizable increases in 2010, negotiations for a new contract weren’t supposed to take place until the Spring of 2014. But the cast decided to renegotiate new contracts early, as it’s always preferable to negotiate from a position of strength. What choice does Warner Bros. Television Studios have?  Bialik and Rauch will double their salaries to $60,000 per episode, which will eventually max out at $100,000 per episode.

This raises an interesting question regarding Hollywood and its hypocritical actors.  Is anyone really worth $60,000 an episode, never mind $1,000,000 per episode?  The answer to that question is absolutely!!  The studio and networks can easily afford the salaries.  If it didn’t work financially, they wouldn’t pay.  But it also raises another interesting point, should the multi-millionaire Hollywood elites like Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep really get involved in issues such as social and economic inequality  Any die-hard Capitalist, would say God Bless them.  Never should anyone apologize for their success and wealth.  While we should all enjoy the protections of a free and democratic society, human beings are not in fact equal, a point that should be celebrated.  No one should complain about any American’s right to live in a mansion on a hill but then don’t speak out about the very inequality in which you partake.  And what’s worse, no one ever calls them on it.  Meryl Streep’s daughter attended the same fancy Country Day School my wife attended.  Public school kids don’t get to experience that.  It provides an unbelievable advantage as my wife’s experience an education was far superior to my public school education.  One final point, it’s simple to be liberal when you’re rich.  You don’t have to worry about any of the issues that affect the common person.  Rich people are isolated from the world which allows them to make choices and express opinions which have no bearing on them personally.  So the next time actors decide to get involved in an issue that doesn’t concern or affect them, i.e. Occupy Wall street, they should simply take a pass.