"In a capitalist society, persons who create capital, like Michael Eisner, are given the staggering rewards"
About this Quote
O'Connor’s line lands like a deadpan jab from someone who spent a lifetime watching labor turn into profit for people offstage. By naming Michael Eisner - the famously hard-driving Disney CEO and a symbol of late-20th-century executive glamour - he turns an abstract critique of capitalism into a recognizable face. That specificity is the point: you can argue theory forever, but a single name evokes stock options, golden parachutes, and the cultural permission structure that treats corporate management as heroism.
The phrasing does quiet double work. "Persons who create capital" sounds almost neutral, even respectful, until you notice the sleight of hand: in everyday language, workers create value, artists create culture, crews create the show. "Create capital" is a deliberately narrow definition of creation, one that flatters finance and ownership while sidelining the people whose hours and talent make the product. O'Connor lets the system indict itself in its own vocabulary.
Then comes the punch: "staggering rewards". It’s not just envy or populist resentment; it’s moral bewilderment at the scale. The subtext is that the rewards aren’t merely high, they’re culturally sanctified, treated as evidence of merit rather than a design choice baked into corporate governance.
Coming from an actor - and one associated with working-class realism on TV - the remark reads as insider testimony. He’s not critiquing capitalism from the outside; he’s pointing at an industry where creative labor is celebrated publicly while capital creation is compensated privately, astronomically.
The phrasing does quiet double work. "Persons who create capital" sounds almost neutral, even respectful, until you notice the sleight of hand: in everyday language, workers create value, artists create culture, crews create the show. "Create capital" is a deliberately narrow definition of creation, one that flatters finance and ownership while sidelining the people whose hours and talent make the product. O'Connor lets the system indict itself in its own vocabulary.
Then comes the punch: "staggering rewards". It’s not just envy or populist resentment; it’s moral bewilderment at the scale. The subtext is that the rewards aren’t merely high, they’re culturally sanctified, treated as evidence of merit rather than a design choice baked into corporate governance.
Coming from an actor - and one associated with working-class realism on TV - the remark reads as insider testimony. He’s not critiquing capitalism from the outside; he’s pointing at an industry where creative labor is celebrated publicly while capital creation is compensated privately, astronomically.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wealth |
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