So, Bernie Sanders criticized Disney on the campaign trail for paying workers low wages and for recent lay-offs while the CEO makes close to $50 million a year.
The CEO of Disney responded on Facebook by saying “We created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade, and our company has created 18,000 in the US in the last five years. How many jobs have you created? What have you contributed to the US economy?”
That reply is being treated in the media as a devastating comeback, even though it does not address the actual issues Sanders raised. Well done, Disney, for creating low wage jobs!
But, read between the lines. What the CEO of Disney is really saying here is “we decide if people will have jobs, we decide if your state will raise or lower unemployment, we control the economy, you don’t.” And he seems to feel that if Disney creates jobs, it is somehow a favor to the population.
What no one in the media is mentioning is that Disney receives more government subsidies than any other media conglomerate in the country. Disney profits from hundreds of millions of dollars from local, state and federal government tax credits and other forms of public funds every year. Yes, public funds…taxpayer dollars…one of the biggest corporations in the world receives government welfare, while its workers are often too poor to afford a decent place to live. And this same publicly subsidized company gets to brag about its record of job creation? It gets to criticize the government’s inability to create jobs?