Meet Abigail Disney, the multimillionaire ‘class traitor’: Walt Disney’s grandniece and heiress wants to tax the rich more and has called billionaires ‘miserable, unhappy people’
Abigail Disney knows what it’s like to be rich.
Now, she’s again speaking out about the need to change the United States – and the people in her wealth bracket. Here’s what you need to know about the heiress and advocate.
She’s in favour of raising her own taxes to create a more equitable system
In early April, Disney was a speaker at Oligarchs vs. All of Us: The Fight for Power and Money. The event was hosted by the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of millionaires devoted to creating a better and more equitable country – which includes having their own taxes raised. And they also have their sights on those in the taxes brackets above them.
She’s a vocal critic of the “four comma club” of billionaires
How rich is Lady Gaga really? Inside her gigantic net worth
She talked about how there’s a “persistent ignorance and alienation”. For instance, the more money that her parents got, the more they become afraid of interacting with others who aren’t like them. They felt that the more money they had, they more they had to lose.
She sees wealth accumulation as an addiction
“You need a special entrance and a special exit. You need a private aeroplane and a private bar. You don’t want to inhabit anything but the stratosphere with people who are like you,” Disney said in her speech for the Patriotic Millionaires. “So there’s a detachment from reality, and then comes the selfishness.”
Disney previously wrote in The Atlantic that “the dynamics of wealth are similar to the dynamics of addiction” – as you get more, you need more.
She thinks billionaires are “miserable, unhappy people”
In her speech, Disney also said that some wealthy people even develop a denial of death, and “self-delusion” by “telling yourself you’re doing God’s work”.
“In other words, billionaires are miserable, unhappy people,” Disney said. “The billionaire bashing needs to happen. I don’t know why we’re being so polite.”
The luxury lives of Kourtney Kardashian’s children
Disney has been an outspoken advocate for taxing the wealthy more. Last year, she testified at a Congressional hearing held by Senator Elizabeth Warren on the tax system.
She’s leading by example
“My part of the American dream is to step up and pay my fair share,” Disney said of a wealth tax.
In her speech, Disney said that there’s a “lot of nodding politely” among those who know and hang out with the wealthy.
“I say, well that’s over now. I don’t think we need to do that any more. Because while the society chose to deify the billionaires, the billionaires listened to that and began to deify themselves,” Disney said. “And we need to disabuse them of the notion that they have nothing to do with any of the problems out here.”
Instead, it’s “our job” as Patriotic Millionaires “to choose to change the people in our class” and that the country needs to change fundamentally, she said in her speech. “It won’t change until we change these people.”
- At a conference hosted by the Patriotic Millionaires, the Disney heiress said ‘billionaires are isolated and miserable’ and that billionaire-bashing is needed
- She previously told Congress that she wants to ‘step up and pay my fair share’ at a hearing held by Elizabeth Warren, and advocates for taxing the wealth more