May 3, 2025 • 5 mins
In this episode, we delve into a critical examination of Walt Disney's legacy and the ethical foundations of the company he built. Drawing from a recent article on ConservativeOpinion.com, we explore how Disney's business practices have evolved over time and the moral implications of those changes. From the company's handling of labor issues to its engagement with cultural and political debates, we discuss the complexities of maintaining ethical standards in a global entertainment empire. Join us as we unpack what Walt Disney might have overlooked and what lessons can be learned for today's business leaders.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Conservative Opinion Podcast
brought to you byConservativeOpinioncom.
Now here's your host, jordanRickards.
All right, welcome to theConservative Opinion Podcast
brought to you byConservativeOpinioncom.
Thanks for joining us.
This is your host, jordanRickards.
Today's topic business ethicsand what Walt Disney got wrong.
(00:25):
My wife and I recently watchedthe American Experience
documentary on Walt Disney.
Being partial to Disney'sempire of fantasy, and having
previously endured a biopic sopoor it might have been produced
by a rival studio, weapproached it with both
curiosity and caution.
What emerged was a familiarportrait, if not a predictable
one the debate over whetherDisney's genial public image
(00:46):
masked a harsher private reality.
But there was one matter beyonddispute Disney demanded that
his name symbolize excellence.
His films were to be immaculate.
Budgets were wrecked, deadlinespulverized, staff exhausted.
It was the price of putting hisname to anything.
In this, at least, he was afundamentalist.
This fierce devotion to craftwas thrown into sharper relief
(01:09):
when the documentary turned tothe question of labor.
By the time, disney Studioemployed 1,200 souls.
The Great Depression had mademisery commonplace and war
clouds gathered abroad.
Workers struggled.
One story lingers unpleasantlyA single mother, employed
full-time, went without meals tofeed her children.
Faced with a rising clamor forunionization, disney convened a
(01:33):
meeting.
A wiser man might have said youhave shown loyalty to my name,
I will show loyalty to yourneeds.
Or, as a pragmatist, he mighthave realized that it was in his
best interest to offer topcompensation to retain and
attract top talent.
Instead, disney, ever theautodidact in poverty and pain,
lectured them on market forces.
(01:53):
This was his business, theywere being disloyal to him and
he would not indulge thesentiment.
From a purely capitaliststandpoint, one could almost
admire the consistency.
And yet it struck me.
If a man is prepared tosacrifice so much for the
perfection of his product, thenwhy not for the dignity of his
workers?
Disney took unbounded pride inplacing his name on his films, a
(02:16):
standard so high thatmediocrity was treated as an act
of treason.
Should not the samefastidiousness apply to the
lives of those who animated hisdreams?
Is his name not just as much afix to them?
Excellence confined to thefinal product is a cheap
counterfeit of true excellence.
Those of us who trade under ourown names must recognize we are
(02:37):
judged not merely by what weproduce, but by how we produce
it.
To preside over a company wherea full-time employee must
ration her meals to sustain heroffspring is not merely a
business failure.
It is a moral one, and itstains the name far more
indelibly than a bad review evercould.
Nor is decency merely astrategy, a do-well-by-doing
(02:57):
good, piety for the Chamber ofCommerce circuit.
One does not treat workersproperly because it might yield
a better margin next quarter.
One does it because anyalternative is disgraceful.
The memory called to mindanother industrial titan, milton
Hershey.
Touring a construction site inthe thick of the Depression,
hershey observed the new steamshovels that could do the work
(03:18):
of 30 men.
He ordered them off the site,saying simply Hire 30 men.
Profit, he understood, is notalways the highest good, despite
the best efforts of several MBAprograms to suggest otherwise.
I am not naive about thedifferences in scale.
I have a small business.
I have no shareholders bayingfor dividends, no banks
(03:39):
clutching at my collar.
Perhaps even Hershey, presidingover an empire of sugar, could
afford a gesture where otherscould not.
But the principle remains intact.
Nor do I subscribe to theleveling nonsense of income
equality.
There is nothing ignoble aboutdisparity of earnings when it
reflects disparity of risk,effort and ingenuity.
(03:59):
The modern passion for envyparading as fairness leaves me
cold.
I do not argue that a janitorshould be paid as a CEO.
I argue merely that nofull-time worker should suffer
indignity or hunger at the handsof an employer who can prevent
it.
Those who demand loyalty must beprepared to return it, and
those whose names adorn theirventures must realize they are
(04:21):
judged not only by theirvictories but by their failures.
To allow excellence in onesphere and squalor in another is
not merely hypocrisy.
It is failure of the mostenduring and public kind.
In the end, the businesses webuild, like the talents
entrusted to the servants inChrist's parable, are gifts from
God, not monuments to ourselves.
(04:42):
As Scripture reminds us, unlessthe Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
It is not enough to craftsomething excellent, we must
also be excellent.
Those who labor alongside usare not merely cogs in the
machine, but souls placed underour stewardship.
To honor them is to honor theone who gave us the opportunity
(05:03):
at all, and we should do so notreluctantly, nor merely as a
cost of doing business, butjoyfully, seeing in every act of
fairness and generosity an echoof the God who first showed
mercy to us.
What bears our name must honorhis name, or it is not worth
building at all.
Thanks for joining us.
Welcome to the Conservative Opinion Podcast
brought to you byConservativeOpinioncom.
Now here's your host, jordanRickards.
All right, welcome to theConservative Opinion Podcast
brought to you byConservativeOpinioncom.
Thanks for joining us.
This is your host, jordanRickards.
Today's topic business ethicsand what Walt Disney got wrong.
(00:25):
My wife and I recently watchedthe American Experience
documentary on Walt Disney.
Being partial to Disney'sempire of fantasy, and having
previously endured a biopic sopoor it might have been produced
by a rival studio, weapproached it with both
curiosity and caution.
What emerged was a familiarportrait, if not a predictable
one the debate over whetherDisney's genial public image
(00:46):
masked a harsher private reality.
But there was one matter beyonddispute Disney demanded that
his name symbolize excellence.
His films were to be immaculate.
Budgets were wrecked, deadlinespulverized, staff exhausted.
It was the price of putting hisname to anything.
In this, at least, he was afundamentalist.
This fierce devotion to craftwas thrown into sharper relief
(01:09):
when the documentary turned tothe question of labor.
By the time, disney Studioemployed 1,200 souls.
The Great Depression had mademisery commonplace and war
clouds gathered abroad.
Workers struggled.
One story lingers unpleasantlyA single mother, employed
full-time, went without meals tofeed her children.
Faced with a rising clamor forunionization, disney convened a
(01:33):
meeting.
A wiser man might have said youhave shown loyalty to my name,
I will show loyalty to yourneeds.
Or, as a pragmatist, he mighthave realized that it was in his
best interest to offer topcompensation to retain and
attract top talent.
Instead, disney, ever theautodidact in poverty and pain,
lectured them on market forces.
(01:53):
This was his business, theywere being disloyal to him and
he would not indulge thesentiment.
From a purely capitaliststandpoint, one could almost
admire the consistency.
And yet it struck me.
If a man is prepared tosacrifice so much for the
perfection of his product, thenwhy not for the dignity of his
workers?
Disney took unbounded pride inplacing his name on his films, a
(02:16):
standard so high thatmediocrity was treated as an act
of treason.
Should not the samefastidiousness apply to the
lives of those who animated hisdreams?
Is his name not just as much afix to them?
Excellence confined to thefinal product is a cheap
counterfeit of true excellence.
Those of us who trade under ourown names must recognize we are
(02:37):
judged not merely by what weproduce, but by how we produce
it.
To preside over a company wherea full-time employee must
ration her meals to sustain heroffspring is not merely a
business failure.
It is a moral one, and itstains the name far more
indelibly than a bad review evercould.
Nor is decency merely astrategy, a do-well-by-doing
(02:57):
good, piety for the Chamber ofCommerce circuit.
One does not treat workersproperly because it might yield
a better margin next quarter.
One does it because anyalternative is disgraceful.
The memory called to mindanother industrial titan, milton
Hershey.
Touring a construction site inthe thick of the Depression,
hershey observed the new steamshovels that could do the work
(03:18):
of 30 men.
He ordered them off the site,saying simply Hire 30 men.
Profit, he understood, is notalways the highest good, despite
the best efforts of several MBAprograms to suggest otherwise.
I am not naive about thedifferences in scale.
I have a small business.
I have no shareholders bayingfor dividends, no banks
(03:39):
clutching at my collar.
Perhaps even Hershey, presidingover an empire of sugar, could
afford a gesture where otherscould not.
But the principle remains intact.
Nor do I subscribe to theleveling nonsense of income
equality.
There is nothing ignoble aboutdisparity of earnings when it
reflects disparity of risk,effort and ingenuity.
(03:59):
The modern passion for envyparading as fairness leaves me
cold.
I do not argue that a janitorshould be paid as a CEO.
I argue merely that nofull-time worker should suffer
indignity or hunger at the handsof an employer who can prevent
it.
Those who demand loyalty must beprepared to return it, and
those whose names adorn theirventures must realize they are
(04:21):
judged not only by theirvictories but by their failures.
To allow excellence in onesphere and squalor in another is
not merely hypocrisy.
It is failure of the mostenduring and public kind.
In the end, the businesses webuild, like the talents
entrusted to the servants inChrist's parable, are gifts from
God, not monuments to ourselves.
(04:42):
As Scripture reminds us, unlessthe Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
It is not enough to craftsomething excellent, we must
also be excellent.
Those who labor alongside usare not merely cogs in the
machine, but souls placed underour stewardship.
To honor them is to honor theone who gave us the opportunity
(05:03):
at all, and we should do so notreluctantly, nor merely as a
cost of doing business, butjoyfully, seeing in every act of
fairness and generosity an echoof the God who first showed
mercy to us.
What bears our name must honorhis name, or it is not worth
building at all.
Thanks for joining us.
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