Letters to the Editor
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Having A Life
This fanciful history doesn't explain why every Tom, Dick, and Dorothy who can put two words together (before and after film school) wants to be a screenwriter. Compared to other "writing" forms it's not especially challenging. Try writing plays, novels, or poetry--the media that most demonstrates ones capacity with the written word--and the screenwriters are the most fortunate of the lot.
The mere fact that they have a union and somebody who cares (they hope) if they walk out puts them in another category. Look at all those sit-coms that need jokes--all the internet sites that need film critics, all the grad schools that need teachers, all the re-writes nobody uses but they still pay good money for. (And yes, there is always advertising.)
If it wasn't for the fact they're fellow writers, I wouldn't have much sympathy. They know what they're getting into. It is not and never was a writer's media--unless you do the Woody Allen route, or the Europeans, or the Indies who give one at least a little hope that God is not totally evil.
Try acting, directing, nepotism, or marrying a rich spouse if you are serious about getting into the movies and still having a life.
P.S. Did I mention journalists--the hardest working/lowest paid of the lot if they didn't go to the right schools and can't play dumb to get a corporate gig.