A Disney World Story That's Realistic About The Costs!?

TomG said:

Besides all this crap do you really believe any one person can do anything that is worth 45 MILLION dollars a year ? If you do then sorry for you., He's not saving lives or feeding the poor, he's running a amusement park for God sake and I am sure other people could do it for a lot lot less. You really try to justify that ? Walt Disney World does have a responsibility to the people that serve it, that bring their hard earned dollars there not just to the corporate slobs that own shares. There is enough greed in this world to go around many times.

Wait. Is the implication here that a $45 million dollar salary is responsible for a visit being cost prohibitive to you?

Because, like I mentioned above, 68 million people visit the US disney parks alone. If we distributed that money back to the guests, each visitor would get 66 cents.

Your family of six would be due $3.96 because of his evil salary prohibiting you from visiting Disney. Would you like that in the form of check, cash or Disney Dollars?

TomG said:

“Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.”

There's a *critical* word in that quote you seem to bet overlooking. "Just"

He never said he didn't go into it to make money. He said he didn't go into it "just" to make money.

TomG said:
I can give you 2 quotes from Walt Disney...

–“You reach a point where you don’t work for money.”

That quote came from a man who was very wealthy, so he was in a position to say that.

“Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.”

But that quote doesn't say they didn't go in to it with the idea of not making money. Making money was part of the idea. As was providing a great, highly themed, immersive experience.

Neither of those quotes address how much the park should cost and who should be able to afford them. Just that making money wasn't the ONLY motivating factor.

Apple says something similar at every product launch.

I never implied that his $45 Million dollar salary is responsible for anything. I just stated that Is anyone one person worth it to get paid that much. His salary or anybody else is not evil just pure disgusting.

Tell me this is not greed. I had 6 park admissions and had dinner reservations at Be Our Guest at 8:00 PM. I was told that besides having tickets to the park that I would need 6 tickets to MIckey's Christmas Party just to be able to walk to Be Our Guest so besides the $380.00 dinner they wanted me to pay another $400.00 just to walk into the park after 7:00 PM.

It wasn't until I went to the restaurant to see if there was another option. One manager had enough common sense to tell me to stay at the restaurant from 7:00 PM. When I first called WDW and told them I made the reservations before Mickey's party dates were out they said sorry there is nothing we can do. You have to buy the extra tickets if you want to go to dinner.

Any chance you're a big fan of Bernie Sanders?

I see it as greed on your part for demanding you be given something you aren't entitled to for a price you determine suites you. Perhaps you should have donated that money to less fortunate people or charities.

Supply and demand also drives salary. You can call it greed, but if you're really good at leading a multi-billion dollar company, you're in high demand.

And boo-hoo about your Christmas Party situation. For all of your twice-year visits, I would expect you to know better.

Indeed, driving quality and innovation while pursuing profit is a tenant of America's most admirable companies, in my opinion. Say what you will about Disney's ability to make money, they have generally (despite some lapses in judgement) cared a great deal about making the best possible product. The animated hits are high quality art first, long before they're a reason to sell merchandise. Apple has insane margins on their stuff, but they spend a ton of time on R&D to make the quality "insanely great." (Not always worth it to me, but I get it.) The biggest disruptor now is Tesla, where Elon Musk set clear goals to build high margin cars that would downstream finance the electrification of commodity cars, and he's innovated and pushed new energy products to market by fundamentally changing supply chain and manufacturing. He'll get rich(er) doing it.

And seriously, the last thing I want is higher attendance at WDW. We actually got turned away from Epcot this year during Food & Wine because the parking lot was full. That's insane.

Lord Gonchar said:
Any chance you're a big fan of Bernie Sanders?

Bernie was a politician doing what politicians do, over promise to get elected. Even he didn't believe everything (or likely most of) what he said.

TomG said:

I never implied that his $45 Million dollar salary is responsible for anything. I just stated that Is anyone one person worth it to get paid that much. His salary or anybody else is not evil just pure disgusting.

I find it more disgusting that people flipping burgers expect $15 per hour.

I find it disgusting that you're a stay at home dad (well, I guess half dad now) that thinks you can get away living your fabulous life and not have to do any work for it. I bet your kids are spoiled hedge fund brats.

You should.

I do donate money to charity. So what do you think people flipping burgers should make ?? Not enough to pay rent and feed their kids ?

Yes, because the target age range for those jobs is someone who should not be paying rent on their own and having multiple kids.

I understand that people struggle, but if you don't like the situation, change it. Don't expect it to change to suit you.

I don't know if you go to McDonald's but some of the workers are in their 70's, they may have lost a spouse or their home and I don't believe they can change the situation that easy. i wish it was as easy as you say but a lot of people don't have a way out and they are stuck in bad ways and that may be all they can ever do due to a bad upbringing or schooling. I don't know if $15.00 is the answer but I know that no one can live on $8.00 an hour See this is the point I am trying to make, we must have some compassion for one another...........

TomG said:

I do donate money to charity. So what do you think people flipping burgers should make ?? Not enough to pay rent and feed their kids ?

I think one should be paid according to the value they create for their employer. This is also affected by general skill level, demand for those skills and so forth.

Anyone can flip a burger. It requires no skills at all beyond being present (and the ability to grip a spatula, I suppose). The job is not one that holds a lot of value.

Very few people can successfully oversee a company as large and valuable as Disney - in vision, ability, skillset and so forth. It is a job that holds a lot of value.

It has nothing to do with what you think you deserve (much like your overall argument that Disney is too expensive) and everything to do with what things are worth to others. It's not the moral argument you keep wanting to make it.

So you think someone without any marketable skills should make how much? Because I don't think it's fair for someone who hasn't got the skills or training to make what I worked hard and fought for.

As far as compassion, have more compassion and start taking less Disney trips and volunteer more at homeless shelters. Donate that money. I volunteer at least 10 hours a month for causes I feel are important. I have a civil service job where I help people. I donate to charities. You wanna act like people here are immoral and lack compassion, what are YOU doing to change the world?

TomG said:His salary or anybody else is not evil just pure disgusting.

His salary is determined by the company he works for. You or I may think it's "disgusting", but that's what he gets paid. Don't like it? Don't go there.

Tell me this is not greed. I had 6 park admissions and had dinner reservations at Be Our Guest at 8:00 PM. I was told that besides having tickets to the park that I would need 6 tickets to MIckey's Christmas Party just to be able to walk to Be Our Guest so besides the $380.00 dinner they wanted me to pay another $400.00 just to walk into the park after 7:00 PM.

Okay, I'll tell you it's not greed. You had sufficient income to afford tickets to the park to begin with . You clearly have access to the Internet, so it would have been easy for you to learn about Mickey's Christmas Party.

You're an affluent, educated consumer. Why are you complaining about not being able to afford a premium experience?

I don't understand this thread. Why should Disney charge less? They are meeting capacity. Assuming I meet capacity, I would rather sell item x for $400 instead of $200. If I could raise the price of item x to $500 and not lose capacity, then it would be a bad decision to keep it at $400.

Compassion has no place in economics. Sorry.

Disney is not in business to allow everyone to experience their product. They are in business to make money, as all businesses are.

TheMillenniumRider said:

Compassion has no place in economics. Sorry.

A large part of me wants to +100000 this so high. It is right on so many levels.

But I also believe that economics is tied to a lot of other issues where compassion does have a place. (Note: Disney ticket prices is not one of those places). Our country as a whole is better off when people who don't have skills (for whatever reason) can still put in 40 hours a week and make a living. It's moral and the alternative is that people who don't have skills and don't have the ability to get skills are completely and totally screwed and will end up costing the country more because we're not going to let them starve to death or die of treatable ailments.

Should companies be the ones that pay for the living-making to occur? Should the govt.? And how do we differentiate between people who can't get skills and people who are too lazy to get skills? I don't know, but that doesn't preclude the initial idea that people without skills should be able to make a living - morally and economically.

To me the problem comes down to perception of what we should have. A government should provide certain things to its citizens. Corporations should be fair in the way people are treated. In a more just system, people with little to no skills, or even people who are more lazy, should have the minimum requirements to have a life that is basic. Affordable, clean housing. Affordable, adequate healthcare. Access to transportation and opportunities. Healthy, adequate food.

And that could be done, and that is where politics, greed, and all of the negatives come in to play.

I also believe that luxury should be commiserate with skill set as well. Anything beyond the basics are luxury. From candy to a book to a nice car to vacations spent traveling and on up.