Brilliant writers on economics and law, Becker and Posner, have posted a new entry on their blog on why Hollywood is largely liberal. This isn't a rant against Hollywood, but simply an attempt to explain the observation that there are 50 outspoken liberal actors to every 1 outspoken conservative actor*.
Posner says that it might be that actors prefer extreme political positions and the since the Left is more acceptable than the Right many of them choose that orientation. Another of his possible explanations is that if the population wants movies that offend typically conservative tastes, then conservatives will be less likely to enter into show business. For example, few conservative Christians would probably like to act in Requiem for a Dream even though the moral is largely about the negative effects of drug use.
Becker offers a possibility that since people in Hollywood are more likely to have affairs, get divorced, live alternative lifestyles, and use drugs, it makes sense that they would prefer a more liberal set of political policies.
I'd like to submit my own thoughts to the subject. There are many unions for actors, directors, writers, and crew. The unions are an attempt to raise wages in these industries while simultaneously keeping competitors out. Why keep competitors out? The stars earn huge amounts of money and many new actors are willing to work for very little in order to break into the industry. The competition from these new actors would drive wages down if not for union rules on how much you can pay an actor.
If you're in Hollywood and part of the union, you definitely want liberal pro-union policy makers. If you're outside of the union earning little and trying make it big, you still want liberal social policies like unemployment benefits, minimum wage and free health care.
The next question is, why are the stars are liberal in spite of the fact that they lose a lot of their money to the high tax bracket they're in due to the progressive tax system? Practically everyone they work with wants the benefits of a liberal social policy. During the writer's strike, imagine what would have happened to Conan, Leno or Letterman if they had hired scab writers. The major players must retain pro-union pro-liberal stances in order to have workers in the writer's rooms, in the dressing rooms and behind the camera.
You might even be able to test if this theory is correct. The prediction is that if you look at other industries where there is a lot of competition for entry level positions, but very high earnings for a small group of "stars," then you would find more liberals. Sports is the closest industry I can think of and you don't typically think of athletes as being very liberal. Perhaps this is due to the fact that players can not actually form a union whereas management does form a cartel that is legally protected.
*Potentially an exageration. I do not know what the ratio would really be.
