Looks like Disney has a new groove in the guise of Shanghai flavored mouse. The going rate for this new look is a measly $3.5 billion. Add 1.3 billion people living in China who are clamoring for mouse droppings – I mean Disney products – and you have the formula for continued financial success for one of the best known companies in the world.

So, how does that company share its wealth? In Orlando, FL, the mouse is pretty miserly. In the City of the Mouse, Duck, and other fuzzy and feathered animated creatures, nearly a quarter of all households live on less than $20,000 a year, while surrounding areas range from 27% to 36% of all households living near or below the poverty line. Those who live in such conditions are much more likely to see real mice in their own homes than to ever see the more famous one at Disney World. Riding high on the Matterhorn is likely to bring you into close contact with various airborne particles as the air quality in the city ranges from mediocre to bad. If the mouse is coughing it is just as likely from pollutants as it is from chain smoking (Disney World does have designated smoking areas, which is good new because we know that smoke tends to honor the rules of staying in one place, and there are a few smokers in Shanghai and even a few more in the rest of China). Reports also show that Disney is quick to cut its low-paid workforce whenever it sees fit. The irony is that company executives will call it trimming the fat, or making the company leaner in mean economic times. In reality, it is just another way to keep the mouse swimming in gold.

Disney might not be all bad. Some people who work with production animals think that Disney is to blame when someone decides to become vegetarian. Children grow up watching talking animals in Disney movies, and are then asked to eat them by their parents (who saw Bambi as a promotional piece for hunting). On the other hand, Disney is blamed for animal exploitation, which just means you can’t have it both ways. In China production animals are a major market sector, though overall the Chinese tend to eat more vegetables than we do in the US. Disney-Shanghai may have to develop a character based on egg drop soup.

Direct foreign investment is not intrinsically bad. The problem is with the unwillingness to share profits. Unfortunately, Disney’s mascot is an animal known to horde. It’s time the mouse learned to share.