Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy O. Disney (co-founder of the Walt Disney Company), is pushing for greater taxes on America’s wealthiest residents. The self-proclaimed philanthropist says that billionaires have no need to accumulate extra riches when they already have more than enough.
Abigail, a one-time donor of millions, is also a member of Patriotic Millionaires, a collective of wealthy Americans who believe in paying more taxes. She has spoken out about how billionaires make money simply by not moving, since their wealth increases passively over time.
I think that any billionaire who can’t survive on $999m is somehow a sociopath. Like, why? You know, a billion dollars over makes money so quickly that you can’t possibly get rid of it. And so simply by sitting on your hands, you become more of a billionaire until you’re a double billionaire. It’s a weird way to live when you have objectively more money than a person can possibly spend,” she said to The Guardian.
Abigail deliberately decided early in life to give away most of her inheritance. Through 2021, she had donated about $70 million to benefit groups such as women with HIV, women in prison, and victims of domestic violence.
She has also stood firmly against the abuse of wealth for personal advantage and power, cautioning that it threatens democracy. Addressing the Vatican, Abigail expressed her concerns:
“I feel sad and worried about how greed and selfishness can harm a country’s democracy.”
Abigail admitted that her easy life in the US wasn’t solely the product of diligent work. Rather, she attributed her good fortune to good tax policies, sheer luck, and the financial support of her grandparents.
