Speaking
before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee: Proposals
to Strengthen the Rights and Protections for Workers
15 May 2019
I
am here to help shed light on the problem of excessive executive compensation
and the injustice of the contrast between that compensation and the low wages
and poor conditions of those that work at the bottom of the pay scale. These
problems have been growing over the decades and will continue to worsen and
have deeply negative consequences for our great nation.
I
know a little something about the dynamics of money. I believe that there is
such a thing as too much money. And, to be yet more heretical, I believe it is
possible to say no to more. As an heiress with a famous last name I’ve been
granted a free pass into the places where wealth is unapologetically flaunted.
I’ve watched as, over the last few decades, the wealthy have steadily
self-segregated into ever more restrictive and lavish spaces. In those spaces,
even as they discuss the scourge of poverty, they guarantee that they will
never have to look a gross inequity in the eye. In so shielding themselves,
they have lost the ability to tolerate discomfort, and so work ever harder to
keep their delicate sensibilities out of harm’s way.
I’ve
seen what excess looks like in the form of the private planes parked chock a
block at posh conferences about global warming, where no one so much as nods at
the grotesque irony of such a thing. I’ve lain in the unnecessary queen size
bed of a 737 big enough to carry hundreds but designed to accommodate no more
than a dozen. I have seen it in 85 million-dollar mansions dotting the
Hamptons—empty— I have watched children decked out in designer outfits expensive
enough to fund a whole family’s healthcare for a year. It is time to pull back
the curtain on this garish life and ask ourselves how high a handful should
soar as the rest of us watch the American Dream collapse for a large majority
of working people?
I
have spoken up because I am uniquely placed. As an heir to Disney’s legacy and
yes, no small share of its money, I feel a special responsibility to speak. I
am also uniquely placed because I am not just any heir, and because Disney is
not just any company. Disney is not US Steel. Nor is it Procter and Gamble, or
Apple, or Chevrolet or any other iconic American brand. The Disney brand is an
emotional one, a moral one, I would even say it is a brand that suggests love.
And
when I call out the problem presented by any man, however brilliant, walking
away with 65 million dollars after only grudgingly offering his own employees a
wage that cannot support a single person much less a family, I know it will get
a lot of attention, and hopefully jar a lot of sleepwalkers into consciousness.
I
spoke out about Disney in spite of the fact that I am well aware that Bob Iger
is by far not the worst offender as far as excessive compensation goes, but
because I want to bring attention to the issue of inequality more broadly and
to shine a light on all that we have gradually allowed ourselves to become
accustomed to in the name of this fundamentalist version of capitalism we
currently practice.
We
need to change the way we understand and practice capitalism. We need to put
people ahead of profits once and for all. Yes, leadership has a fiduciary
obligation to their shareholders. But they also have a legal and moral
responsibility to deliver returns to shareholders without trampling on the
dignity and rights of their employees and other stakeholders.
It
is time to say, “enough is enough.” It is time to bring a moral and ethical
framework back to the way we discuss business. It is time for business leaders
to recognize that they have altered the nature of this communal project we call
the United States of America, and that now they must hold themselves
accountable to their fellow citizens.
