RUTHFULLY YOURS

In California, America’s limousine liberals are at it again, demanding that the rapacious California legislature step in and manage corporations lest anyone within the corporation become too rich. Leading the charge is Walt Disney’s great niece.

Abigail Disney is a child of incredible privilege because she is the granddaughter of Roy O. Disney and great niece of Walt Disney, the two men whose genius combined to create The Walt Disney Company. Abigail, a degree jockey, went to all the right schools, by which we really mean all the leftist schools: Yale, Stanford, and Columbia.

As an adult, Abigail has taught English, written about the celebration of violence in American fiction, and produced and directed a handful of documentary films. She is purely leftist in her politics and is, of course, hostile to Israel.

Although Abigail claims to have given away $70 million since she gained control of her inheritance in 1981, she is still estimated to be worth $120 million. In other words, she still has a lot left to give away.

But that’s not how entitled leftists such as Abigail work. They don’t just give up their wealth. Instead, they like having their own money. They like making decisions about how to spend it for their own benefit and how to spend it for what they believe will be someone else’s benefit.

Being leftists, these limousine liberals believe devoutly in using government to control everyone other than themselves. That’s why Abigail is behind a push in California to have the government mandate upper limits on CEO pay. She thinks the government should control the salary and benefits available to people who actually have jobs and are deemed to contribute to corporate well-being.

In addition, despite having inherited her vast wealth through a successful corporation, she believes that government should take more money from corporations, leaving less for shareholders and employees.

So it was that on Wednesday, Abigail appeared before the California State Senate to support SB 37, a bill euphemistically entitled “Corporate Fair Share for California and Californians.” Abigail, who could easily donate some of her wealth to help Disney workers she feels are underpaid, used these workers’ situation to push for more government:

“At the happiest place on Earth, they are paid so poorly that they rely on food banks, sleep in cars or live so close to the bone that even a small problem could send them into a death spiral,” Disney told state lawmakers on Wednesday.

Abigail Disney’s comments about the company’s workers stem from a visit she made to some Disney Land [sic] employees at an offsite union office in Anaheim.

Oh, the humanity. Something must be done . . . and a coercive government is the one to do it.

What really irks Abigail is that Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger made more than $65 million in 2018. I hold no brief for Iger. I think he’s another limousine liberal who is using his access to children to advance a combination of sleaze and leftism.

Walt Disney, who believed in American values, probably would not appreciate what his company does today. Nevertheless, I’m also a believer in the free market, and if Iger’s vision is bringing in massive sums of money, as has been the case with the Frozen franchise, he’s presumably getting paid what he’s worth in a competitive entertainment media market.

What’s really sad is that Abigail, who holds tightly to her own money while demanding that the government control other people’s money, is not the only millionaire seeking to destroy the system that helped create her wealth. She is, instead, affiliated with a group called Patriotic Millionaires, all of whom refuse to give up their wealth and, instead, want you (with a big push from the government) to give up yours.

Here’s a hint for all these “patriotic millionaires,” who describe themselves as “high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors”: Go to one of the myriad accountants you have on the payroll to help you pay as little in taxes as possible. Ask your accountant about the box on the tax form that allows you to give extra money to the government.

Then, ask your accountant and other financial managers to help you assemble all your assets, including liquidating those that are not in cash. Once you’ve done that, donate almost everything you got to the government, leaving yourself with only the equivalent of an average income for your state.

Until you patriotic millionaires put your own money behind your stated values, all you’re doing is unsavory and hypocritical virtue signaling.