Disneyland has become a time capsule not of the romantic idea of 19th century Main Street or even the possibilities in Tomorrowland but of a time when Americans believed in a better future ”” and were willing to invest in it. A half-century ago, we put almost 1 percent of our economy into landing men on the moon, yet today we fall behind other countries in exploring space, supposedly because we cannot afford it.
We pay a huge price for our lack of investment and faith in the future of America. We pay for all the inefficiency of our decrepit infrastructure. We pay with minds that will never be fully developed and with scientific breakthroughs that will enrich other countries. And we pay with lives of daily grind and unpleasantness without hope of respite.
Would that as a people we thought like Walt Disney so we could make America into a happy place.
Here’s the deal–Disney spends money on what it needs, not pie in the sky things it wants. If governments did the same there would be no infrastructure issues. In my state there is a huge debate over paying for infrastructure upgrades. We also have a multi-million dollar budget surplus, yet not a single legislator has suggested we spend the surplus on roads. There are all kinds of vote buying projects to spend the surplus on, but the only solution for road repair is more taxes!