“Having the last name Disney is like having a strange superpower that you didn’t ask for”: a “superpower” that Abigail Disney used to highlight, in a documentary, the social practices of the ‘business.
“Having the last name Disney is like having a weird superpower you didn’t ask for”: the sentence is taken from a documentary released in 2022, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales (“The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales”), produced and co-directed by Abigail Disney. The “super power” of this sometimes heavy name, the heiress – who owns shares but has no official function within the group – used it to denounce the excesses of the company co-founded by her great -father Roy and his great-uncle Walt in terms of social practices. With success, since the minimum wage at Disney was increased by 50% in the United States.
It was after receiving a message from a certain Ralph, an employee at Disneyland, that Abigail Disney went to meet employees of Disney theme parks in the United States. In a scene in the film, she questions around ten of them, gathered in a room: “How many of you know someone who works at Disney and sometimes sleeps in their car?” ; “How many of you know someone who went without medical care because they couldn’t afford it?”…and almost everyone present raised their hand.
“Philanthropy is great, but it’s not democracy”
Neither this documentary nor the increase obtained made many people happy in the Disney family, but the heiress assumes: “There are a lot of people who think I’m biting the hand that feeds me. I have my conscience on my side. Little by little, I’m wasting my money like this, and I’m going to continue.”. This sixty-year-old, who humorously admits to having “Guilt” as her second name, says she has “donated more than $100 million, half of [s]has made a fortune in recent years. I don’t want to die rich, she declares. And you know what ? I will die happy.”
Philanthropist, Abigail Disney? “Philanthropy is great, but it’s not democracy, she replies. I don’t want to live in a country where a handful of very rich people decide which schools, which hospitals are efficient, by giving them their money.” As around 200 American millionaires members of the Patriotic Millionaires club, Abigail Disney is ready to pay more taxes to finance the reconstruction of roads, public schools, renovate the health system… And reduce a little the inequalities which continue to grow dig: indeed, 735 American billionaires own 4 500 billion dollars, more than half of Americans.
Excerpt from “I am rich: tax me !”, a report to watch in “Special Envoy” on January 18, 2024.
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