Disneyland, Family Fun, and the Latest Stage of Advanced Capitalism

During the Spring Break, we took our son to Disneyland in California. It was my first visit, as well as his. We were equally thrilled by the experience.

I am not a huge fan of artificial environments created for mass entertainment. Years ago when I first visited Las Vegas, the place utterly depressed me.

Maybe all the training towards a PhD makes us academics ill-disposed to the idea of popular entertainment. It’s as if the PhD diploma condemns us to watching boring artsy movies and pretending to get the deep dark meaning behind the strawberry scene… anyways, this entry is not about anti-intellectualism…

When in Vegas, I remember finding the place extremely tacky and fake. The air of over-the-top commodification bothered me so much!... It seemed like anything and everything was for sale. Especially the human beings! The amount of in-you-face human flesh became so unbearable for me that in order to tolerate those few days in Vegas, I decide to have a split personality disorder. Here is how it worked:

I imagined myself as an anthropologist doing fieldwork amongst this “weird” clan that was discovered in the deep Nevada desert. They slept during the day, stayed up all night. They lured and tricked the weaker members of their community into loosing their assets in labyrinths called the “casinos”. They liked to display bodies of the good-looking members of their clan in shows called “Crazy Horse”. They also liked to make pathetic models of the objects they liked from the civilized world, like the Eiffel Tower, Venice canals and the pyramids of Egypt. It felt like an extended nightmare with lots of glittery lights, dancing fountains and bouncing boobies…

Because of the rather bad taste on my palate from the Vegas trip, I was hesitant to go to the Disneyland, a.k.a “the happiest place on earth!” However, as guilty liberal parents, we didn’t want to deprive our only son of this experience, because of our moral and intellectual reservations. So, we went. And I’m glad we did!

Aside from spending some wonderful 10 hours, this visit churned the little political economist in me!

The moment we approached the parking lot, we were shepherded by a small army of “crew members”. These employees were all dressed up in the cutest uniforms. They would handle the crowds in the most efficient way, without making them feel rushed at all.

I swear thousands would pass through the main gates at every few minutes, yet the park displayed no signs of overcrowding, chaos or disrepair. Everything looked in great shape, despite the fact that the park was opened in 1955! The conditions and safety measures all around seemed impeccable!

I remember in Ankara, we took our son to a public recreational area in Golbasi once.  He still has a scar on his forehead from the playground there.

I imagine any place in the world with this many children and their overbearing parents would easily turn into a “Lord of the Flies” scene. But not in Disneyland!

The pricey ticket gives you access to all the rides, but the lines are long. People do wait their turns in a patient and orderly manner. Again, the “crew” works magic when it comes to shepherding the crowds in and out of the rides.

And the rides: They are amazing! The first one we went was “It’s a Small World” in the Mickey’s Toontown. It had little dolls from all around the world dressed in the most stereotypical fashion (i.e. geishas from Japan, belly dancers from some magic Arab lands, tulip holding, clog wearing dolls from Holland, etc…). Not much creativity, one might say. But, as we were gliding on a small sandal from one scene to the next, these dancing little dolls just mesmerized us.

I was amazed by the amount of craftsmanship needed to built and program these little dolls to dance and sing in such harmony. Contrary to Vegas, this constructed space of entertainment felt so real! And this sense of a “magic reality” followed us everywhere. It felt as if we were inside a three dimensional cartoon!

So, where is political economy in this?

If you’ve read thus far, bear with me a bit more. Here it comes:

When Disneyland opened in 1955, it had about 1 million visitors. Last year, it had almost 16 million! Tickets are around $80 a piece.  That makes $1.28 billion in revenues just from the entrance fees! Aside from that, you spend quite a bit of money inside on food, drinks, silly hats and other memorabilia.  We spent about $150.

I could not find the numbers but it must take armies of carpenters, puppet makers, gardeners, genitors, mechanics, engineers and maintenance people to keep that place up and running. From 8 am till midnight!

Seeing Disneyland consolidated my opinions about the dominance of the US in service sector. Essentially, Disneyland is all about selling a fictitious reality, a dream. And 16 million visitors each year are willing to pay for it!

California itself is the capital of this huge service sector. It is also the heart of the global entertainment sector. The studios –big and small- the artists –big and small- are the bastions of this empire. Tourism is completely catering towards the entertainment industry, feeding into the magical image of California and the America it creates.

After seeing Disneyland and California, I thought the US need not worry about the demise of its manufacturing sector. Let the Mexicans build the cars and the refrigerators. The Americans would do just fine, by creating magical realities and marketing it across the world.

Unfortunately, all this glitter of the service sector hides a rather dark side. For every actor or producer that makes millions and lives in giant mansions, there are tens of thousands of low-wage stagehands, stunts, waitresses and cleaners that earn pitiful wages with little or no benefits.

Lucky me, I just came across some data that back up my observations. According to OECD statistics, the US had the highest share of low-wage jobs among advanced economies.

This is not surprising, given the increasing predominance of the service sector in the US and its extremely inequitable wage structure. There is an astronomically wide gap between the leading artists and the stagehands. Similarly in banking, finance and insurance sectors, the wage gaps between the top and bottom are outrageous. Whereas in the manufacturing sector, the gap between engineers or administrators and the shop-floor workers had never been that wide.

Moral of this story: Take you kid to Disneyland, if you have the chance. It is a worthy experience, and the happiness and gratitude in your child’s eyes is priceless.

However, keep an eye on the grinding wheels of the service sector as well. Your happiness comes at the expense armies of low-wage workers.

Hopefully, we will be lucky enough to see another Great Transformation and labor mobilization in our lifetimes, like the early decades of Industrial Revolution. Similar to the 8-hour workdays and the child labor bans of the olden times, we need a new set of labor laws. These should provide a fair distribution of wealth that is generated by this new, post-modern economic sector.

The service sector might be the new locomotive of national economies, but it should take care of its constitutive components in a just, fair and equitable manner.

Wishing you all fun and pleasant lives as in Disney cartoons,

The California-enamored Academic Mommy