"Our company is working with Disney to create a game for children between the ages of maybe four and 12, so we can teach them what the capitalist system is all about"
About this Quote
Nothing lands quite like a billionaire pitching capitalism as a preschool curriculum, especially when the delivery is so breezily paternal. Sanford Weill frames the project as innocent edutainment, but the phrase "teach them what the capitalist system is all about" gives away the real ambition: not to explain an economy, but to normalize an ideology before kids have the vocabulary to question it. The age range, "maybe four and 12", isn’t a detail; it’s the tell. This is about imprinting, not instruction.
The Disney partnership sharpens the subtext. Disney is the global shorthand for trust, wonder, and moral clarity - a brand parents outsource to when they want stories to do some of the work of parenting. Marry that to a "game", and you get a stealth delivery system: reward loops, cheerful characters, and frictionless lessons that can make markets feel like nature. Not one system among many, not a set of choices with winners and losers, but the default operating system of life.
Context matters: Weill is a titan of finance, a figure shaped by an era when Wall Street’s public image needed constant laundering through philanthropy, education, and "innovation". The quote’s tone assumes consent: of course children should be trained to understand capitalism, and of course "understanding" will mean affection, even gratitude. It’s soft power in mouse ears - an attempt to turn a contested social arrangement into childhood common sense.
The Disney partnership sharpens the subtext. Disney is the global shorthand for trust, wonder, and moral clarity - a brand parents outsource to when they want stories to do some of the work of parenting. Marry that to a "game", and you get a stealth delivery system: reward loops, cheerful characters, and frictionless lessons that can make markets feel like nature. Not one system among many, not a set of choices with winners and losers, but the default operating system of life.
Context matters: Weill is a titan of finance, a figure shaped by an era when Wall Street’s public image needed constant laundering through philanthropy, education, and "innovation". The quote’s tone assumes consent: of course children should be trained to understand capitalism, and of course "understanding" will mean affection, even gratitude. It’s soft power in mouse ears - an attempt to turn a contested social arrangement into childhood common sense.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
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