What an amazing coincidence. Disney attacks inefficient government services and suddenly Mr. Big Government himself, Bernie Sanders, attacks Disney. How poetic. And stupid.
Bernie asked the Anaheim, California crowd today if Disney was paying a "living wage" and trashed them for sending jobs to China and importing Chinese goods; he even attacked the H1B Visa program while he was at it. You may recognize those as Donald Trump talking points, but apparently Senator Sanders doesn't have a problem with cribbing from other players if he thinks he can get a good crowd reaction.
His basic premise is that evil Disney doesn't provide fair compensation for American workers or their communities, which he certainly bases off some ridiculous "average" income of Disney workers. Like the fake Gender Wage Gap and Hillary's own Dog Trainers vs. Daycare Workers comparison, it's a dumb and arbitrary way of assessing what a business brings to a community. Some Disney workers are part-time, teenage workers operating rides for the summer. Are we to believe those mostly middle class California kids are supposed to be able to build a life on that income? It's absurd of course. It's the problem with all "living wage" nonsense. Some jobs aren't meant to support a family. If you're trying to support your family, get a different job. Don't be a part-time, teenaged, summer ride operator at a theme park. That's not a career. It's date money.
You can't just average out to get a salary. What's more, Bernie's claim that Disney is importing workers to avoid employing Americans is just plain false, as this statement given to Mediaite tonight shows:
Mr. Sanders clearly doesn’t have his facts right. The Disneyland Resort generates more than $5.7 billion annually for the local economy, and as the area’s largest employer has added more than 11,000 jobs over the last decade, a 65% increase. These numbers don’t take into account our $1 billion expansion to add a Star Wars-themed land, which will create thousands of additional jobs across multiple sectors.
What Bernie Sanders should have asked the audience is whether Anaheim would be better off if Disney left. Or had never come there in the first place. That might get a different reaction. At least from sane people.
In fact, asking sane people who work for Disney about Sanders' claim is exactly what Brandon Morse at RedState did:
As it happens, I have a friend – who wishes to remain anonymous – who worked at Disney California, and completely blew Sander’s claim out of the water.
“It is not true. It’s like any place.” she says. “Schedule, hours, and hourly pay, depends on your seniority. They hire in part time. Full time is granted on seniority and performance, so I don’t really think people apply there to support families or themselves.”
The government sure wants to make Disney a bad guy here. Disney, which puts billions into our economy, which employs tens of thousands of people. Why? Is it because Disney smacked down the preposterous statement from Secretary of Veteran Affairs Robert Donald? Maybe. Or maybe Big Government just doesn't like successful businesses.
Either way, we know one thing: Senator Sanders doesn't know what he's talking about.