Heiress Abigail Disney says 'billionaires are miserable, unhappy people,' and it's time for change: 'The billionaire bashing needs to happen. I don't know why we're being so polite.'

• The filmmaker and Disney heiress spoke at an event hosted by millionaires for an equitable economy.
• At "Oligarchs vs. All of Us: The Fight for Power and Money," Disney said billionaires are isolated and miserable.

Abigail Disney knows what it means to be rich.

The filmmaker and activist is the granddaughter of Walt Disney Co. cofounder Roy Disney. As a multimillionaire, she has emerged as one of the most prominent faces of a movement driven by the wealthy to tax the wealthy. She once received a "class traitor" award.

Now, she's again speaking out about the need to change the country — and the people in her wealth bracket.

In early April, Disney was a speaker at "Oligarchs vs. All of Us: The Fight for Power and Money." The event was hosted by the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of millionaires devoted to creating a better and more equitable country — which includes having their own taxes raised. And they also have their sights on those in the taxes brackets above them.

"One of the most hallmark characteristics of the billionaire is, 'but his plane is bigger than mine, but he has more commas than I have.' The four comma club, they call themselves, when nobody's around," Disney said, referring to her perception that the more money someone has, the more they want. "Everywhere you look, there's somebody who has more than you do, and that's not acceptable. That is a really, really horrible way to live your life."

She talked about how there's a "persistent ignorance and alienation." For instance, the more money that her parents got, the more they become afraid of interacting with others who aren't like them. They felt that the more money they had, they more they had to lose.

"You need a special entrance and a special exit. You need a private airplane and a private bar. You don't want to inhabit anything but the stratosphere with people who are like you," Disney said in her speech for the Patriotic Millionaires. "So there's a detachment from reality, and then comes the selfishness."

Disney previously wrote in The Atlantic that "the dynamics of wealth are similar to the dynamics of addiction" — as you get more, you need more.

In her speech, Disney also said that some wealthy people even develop a denial of death, and "self-delusion" by "telling yourself you're doing God's work."

"In other words, billionaires are miserable, unhappy people," Disney said. "The billionaire bashing needs to happen. I don't know why we're being so polite."

Disney has been an outspoken advocate for taxing the wealthy more. Last year, she testified at a Congressional hearing held by Senator Elizabeth Warren on the tax system.

"My part of the American Dream is to step up and pay my fair share," Disney said of a wealth tax.

In her speech, Disney said that there's a "lot of nodding politely" among those who know and hang out with the wealthy.

"I say, well that's over now. I don't think we need to do that anymore. Because while the society chose to deify the billionaires, the billionaires listened to that and began to deify themselves," Disney said. "And we need to disabuse them of the notion that they have nothing to do with any of the problems out here."

Instead, it's "our job" as Patriotic Millionaires "to choose to change the people in our class," and that the country needs to change fundamentally, she said in her speech. "It won't change until we change these people."