All Magic Has A Price -- at Disney's
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Titled "Disney and the Decline of America’s Middle Class", I find this a thoughtful essay on the American middle class' changed position:
America’s 20th century was a fortunate moment when we could rely on companies like Disney to deliver rich and unifying elements of our culture. Walt Disney hoped that his audience would have “no racial, national, political, religious or social differences” — he wanted to appeal to everyone, in no small part because appealing to everyone was profitable. It was a time when big institutions were trusted, and the culture they created was shared by nearly all Americans.
The economics of appealing to the middle class aren’t what they used to be. The market, and increasingly the culture, is dominated by the affluent. And technology is enabling companies to see these previously invisible class divides and act on them.
Based on what we earn, we see different ads, stand in different lines, eat different food, stay in different hotels, watch the parade from different sections, and on and on. What’s profitable today is not unification. It’s segmentation.
