Whole Foods CEO: Business And Capitalism 'Great Forces Of Good'

Bashes Obamacare, but says companies should be more benevolent

PALO ALTO, CA - Whole Foods founder and co-CEO John Mackey could easily be mistaken for one of his customers. The ruffled, somewhat diminutive 60-year-old is a vegan and animal rights activist, and one of the most influential advocates in the organic food movement.

So Whole Foods devotees might be surprised by Mackey's political positions. He's a libertarian who drives liberals crazy, a free marketeer who lives the ultimate blue state lifestyle.

Mackey recently set off an internet firestorm by calling Obamacare "fascism". And at a talk in Palo Alto, CA, the heart of Silicon Valley, he played up the virtues of private enterprise and talked down the role of government in helping people.

"Business and capitalism have been great forces of good in this world," said Mackey, author of "Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business". "Business has created the prosperity that has basically lifted humanity out of the dirt."

Mackay has long been a paradox to Whole Foods patrons, at times caricatured as arugula-eating elitists. Mackey lays out a Reason magazine-style libertarian vision of government's extremely limited role.

"Government's directing and controlling business more than it ever has in American history," he said. "The corporate tax burden in America is now the highest in the world. The level of taxation that multiplies its way through business is extraordinary."

Politix reporting.

Do you agree with Mackey's call for limited government?

[Zazziness]

Small business is good. Small enough that both employees and management know each other and have a sense of personal responsibility for the actions of the business. Megacorporations suck. They drown individuality, encourage mediocrity, and divorce people from a reasonable sense of ethics.

[Knightkore]

Agreed....so does big....and bigger government....small government....smaller government is good....

[Zazziness]

@Knightmare Then why does the GOP continually advocate a government so Orwellian it would dictate who consenting adults can love and marry?

[Knightkore]

@Zazziness I'm on the side of letting them marry....as an American....but as a christian I disagree with that lifestyle....and to have laws and possible laws where christian businesses or churches would have to recognize those marriages against their consciences is what I am not for....
I think this approach....respecting each others freedoms to excercise our freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience is where we need to shift the discussion to....or through....

[Roco]

@Knightmare I think there may be a misunderstanding of religion and business. Religion in the church allows one to practice and believe 100% of their religion. Once you toss in businesses, things become not so well defined. How many people work for a business owned by a religious person (the business itself is not based in religion) that does not engage in that particular faith? Should they be forced to follow their religious doctrines just because they work at these business?

[ST_Louie_Sue]

@Zazziness Orwellian or not, that's the way it is. The majority agrees and so be it until our kids and grand kids are so poisoned by those wanting to change it that the weaker ones cave in.

[PNWest]

He is entitled to his opinions. If he goes out there spewing opinions that the majority of his customers find offensive he may end up hurting his business like Papa John did. I could care a rat's patootie either way. Whole Foods is too expensive and I don't buy into the organic is better argument.

[jessejaymes]

When I was in Oklahoma I shopped a couple of times at whole foods. I found them overprices, bland tasting and not very appealing. The man is entitled to his opinions but what I find a bit on the hypocritical side is when ultra rich people, becoming rich under the system in place, are complaining while they make their money by gouging?

[PNWest]

@jessejaymes To me I find it incredible that the CEO of a store who sells overpriced organic stuff to primarily liberals would go out and make a bunch of libertarian political statements that are bound to be diametrically opposed to those of his customer base. He is entitled to make as much money as he can by supplying goods that his customers want. Customers can be fickle though and it wouldn't take much to push those customers over to another vendor. There is already a movement afoot to "buy local". It's a pretty good idea as the money goes back into the community.

[jessejaymes]

@PNWest Well you know how the fat cats are today. They'll pat you on the head, tell you you're slime and pick your wallet at the same time. All for the good of "business".

[drpeeper]

@jessejaymes Like Obama with Goldman-Sachs and others?

[jessejaymes]

@drpeeper Yeah like them also.

[Vance1]

all Americans should call for limited government! These democrats seek utter Communism

[Zazziness]

God, how I wish that every person who was going to use the word "communism" actually knew what it meant, first.

[NTBFW]

@Zazziness I guess socialism is more accurate.

[jessejaymes]

@Zazziness Let me translate. If they call you a commie, call you a socialist, call you a progressive, call you a liberal you may well be a moderate right leaning conservative. All they are saying is you're not a Tea Party Neo con racist.

[woodtick57]

@NTBFW God, i wish everyone who used the word socialism knew what that word meant first...

or, to quote the movie the "Princess Bride"

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[jessejaymes]

that would be the Mustang Ranch about 11 miles east of Reno Nevada. The reason it went broke after the Feds took it over due to income tax evasion by Joe Conforte (who still lives in South America on the lam) was because the government started wanting I.D.'s, taxing the girls "tips", running the business, well, like a business. And the rednecks and bubbas who patronized them wasn't about to deal with the government. Something about Federal Marshall cars parked outside was scaring customers off. They have since been sold and back up and running and the bubbas are back.

[NTBFW]

@jessejaymes still the fact remains the government lost money on a whorehouse. That takes a special kind of stupid.

[jessejaymes]

@NTBFW It does. Which goes to prove that the only business that government should be in is the business of regulating business not owning it.

[NTBFW]

@jessejaymes lmao! Did you read this before you sent it? Excuse me for laughing, but how can you think that anyone too stupid to own a business has any business telling me how to run mine?

[jessejaymes]

@NTBFW Yes I do. You completely ignored the reality of the situation with the govt owning the Mustang Ranch. No brothel is going to make money with U.S. Marshalls running it. Not ANYWHERE. Your premise was absurd. And I assume you have never heard the old adage "them that can do, do, them that can't teach". Greed is inherent in mankind. Without restrictions and regulations bubba you would have grown in a cave.

[AceLuby]

This guy is a piece of work. He owns a business whose business model is to find successful businesses like his, put up his own shop, lower prices to the point that the other businesses can't match, even if it's at a loss, and then once the competition is gone, raise prices to what the old businesses were. I would never support this guy, no matter what his politics are, because he has no ethics.

[Libertyiskey]

I'm not disputing this, but would like to see an article or evidence supporting this claim. Believing myself to be a libertarian I'm biased to like this guy, but I don't shop there anyway because its too expensive.

[Canoochee]

@AceLuby I responded to this two posts down. For some reason it did not post as a reply.

[Poseur]

What business doesn't do that? Even small local businesses compete in that way. But WF is generally more successful due to it's size. Organic grocery stores are typically tiny (or at least they are in Louisville). WF provides far more selection than I can find at the other places (although it is out of the way for me, so I still go to the other places). And, the sad truth is that small businesses are not capable of providing the wealth of benefits that a large corporation can. How many of those little stores really provide insurance, especially as good as WF offers, and the same level of pay?

[AceLuby]

@Libertyiskey http://alignlife.com/articles/healthyhabits/t...

http://www.organicconsumers.org/whole_foods_u...

"Whole Foods has employed an expansion strategy that resembles Wal-Mart with its targeting of local and independent retailers with new store locations while steadily buying out competitors like Wild Oats."

[AceLuby]

@Poseur Ethical businesses don't do that and small local businesses can't compete in that way, that's the point. Large corporations don't have to use those monopolistic business practices for more profit, it's a choice that they make because these businesses want a monopoly, which are never good for the consumer. In the end the consumers end up spending more while getting less.

[Canoochee]

Having been a vendor for Whole Foods and closely involved with their management, for years, Opening and supporting stores for their first few years, I know for a certainty your statements are false.

[AceLuby]

See my links, they are not false, they are the truth and I saw it happen in my local neighborhood. There used to be 4-5 organic stores and farmer's markets, the farmer's market moved and the competition closed, the only 'organic' (which is a questionable title given some of their products) store in town is now Whole Foods.

[Canoochee]

@AceLuby Protrero Hill in SF, the mega store in Fairfax VA, Columbus OH. Duluth GA I was intimately involved in starting all of them. I was in these stores at least monthly the first two years they were open.

Link all you wish to sites hostile to WF. I know this from personal experience.

[AceLuby]

@Canoochee I also know from personal experience what they did to my neighborhood. I have given you proof of what I claimed and you have given none to prove otherwise.

[Canoochee]

@AceLuby So you did the market study, audited each of the businesses that closed and the WF store and found this information? Or is this just more leftist anecdotal evidence?

[AceLuby]

@Canoochee Your evidence is just as anecdotal. I at least provided links supporting my statement. This has been their practice for a decade and they haven't been shy about it.

[DerivePI]

"Translation for Dummies" - Whole Foods willingly provides services that benefits its customers. Government forcefully takes, and continues to strangle the productive.

[Poseur]

I disagree with Mackey's economic views, but he is a good man who runs one of the most benign retail corporations in the country. If all CEOs were as noble as him I would completely support the libertarian economic model.

[PayThatCEO]

So sorry that Mackey feels his employees aren't worth health insurance. He doesn't believe that a person's health is a "great force of good"?

[Penn1699]

Absolutely!

[harold_lloyd]

Yes,but...
A government should be as large as necessary, and not a bit larger. So how large it gets depends on what we demand of it.

Our problem is not too much government, its not wanting to pay for the government we have built to respond to our demands.

"The corporate tax burden in America is now the highest in the world." is a crock.
The published tax rates are higher here, but the effective rate, the rate actually paid is one of the lowest.

Exxon-Mobil pays a lot of corporation taxes, they also get billions in subsidies. Do the accounting and see how much they actually sent to the government in 2012. Do it before you argue with me.

That's why I invest in Exxon-Mobil. You all are paying me. And giving me a tax break too.

[Keyjo]

One hundred years ago, 150 perhaps, we were a nation of small and growing businesses.
Today, we are all suffering subjects of a monarchy of a handful of sinister, demonic mega businesses.
I wish that small business owners could see that they are in the same boat with us little guys. Once a small business starts to grow and become successful, it is either devoured or destroyed by the greedy big boys.
Despite anti monopoly laws, those few mega corporations DO hold monopolies. We have three Walmarts in my town, two of them are "Super Walmarts," and the third is almost one. Small business here are dropping like flies, half the stores downtown and in our two malls are vacant. Even the smaller corporations can't compete, they are being absorbed or forced out. Just wait, with the popularity of "whole foods," soon Walmart will feature its own (bogus) whole foods section.

[MadAmerican]

I think some of you lost what this conversation was about. It's about too much government regulating all busnesses.(sp)Anyway he is just trying to make a living like everyone else so why all the hate? At least he's not on welfare, getting a free cell phone, and food stamps.

[Tralee]

Capitalism built America, it used to be that people looked up to the guy with the great idea who started a business, made it successful and got wealthy from his hard work, now with the new thinking of the liberals, the man who had the idea, put his money on the line, worked 24/7 and slowly built the business up, redeemed the 2nd. mortgage, hired more people and made more widgets to sell and finally reaped the rewards of all his hard work and risk taking, is considered a robber who somehow victimized all those people he hired and stole something from someone keeping them down (You didn't build that!) and is so vile he should just be put out of his misery according to liberals. At the very least he should be forced to pay taxes that make the practice of usury seem benign, be spat on in the streets and be subject to riots outside of his home for daring to work hard, expand on his idea and get wealthy. What a slime ball, according to the libs. Times and rational thinking have changed greatly, the successful used to be someone one wanted to emulate, not seems 50% of the hardly working just want to take their stuff and put in their own pockets.

[MellowGuy]

He's a union buster. In addition, there is no effort to exclude unhealthy foods from his store.

[Grubby]

He has got it right, meanwhile Obama and the Liberals do everything they can to kill all businesses, both large and small. I don't understand why they believe that free enterprise is bad, private ownership is bad, success is terrible. Under Obama, the country is about to learn what central planning and government control does to their lives. Liberals think it will be a better life, but they will find out they are wrong.