Whole Foods and the Health Care Fiasco

So the left is all atwitter over Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, in which Mackey argued that the last thing this country needs is another unfunded entitlement program, especially while Social Security and Medicare fast approach insolvency. He writes:

With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people’s money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.

While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone

Mackey then goes on to list eight reforms such as tort reform, removing state laws prohibiting insurance companies to compete across state lines and equalizing the tax laws between employer-provided and individually owned health insurance. These are legitimate reforms that are not even being talked about by the Democrats in Congress or the Obama Administration. If they are, I surely haven’t heard about them.

Nevertheless, Mackey has stepped into the spotlight and attacked a Democratic initiative, and not only that, but a Democratic dream for decades, namely, universal health care. His proposed reforms are a wise step in the opposite direction. Reform not rebirth. And so guess what’s happening?

Well for one, Whole Foods’ website has blown up with all kinds of complaints mostly along the lines of this one:

I was so shocked to read Mr. Mackey’s horrible, horrible opinion in the WSJ. 
i have been a loyal WF customer for almost 20 years. 
I am disgusted to find out what the founder’s attitude is. 
I hope this severely hurts his profits. His customer base is mostly liberal Democrats who will, like me, be horrified at what we have been supporting all this time. 

I for one am glad to know. I am so disgusted.

So basically, a portion of the left wants to boycott Whole Foods because their CEO has weighed in on the health care debate in a way that offends them. I think it is silly, but I’ll defend their right to do so. Radley Balko had this to say:

Let me see if I have the logic correct here: Whole Foods is consistently ranked among the most employee-friendly places to work in the service industry. In fact, Whole Foods treats employees a hell of a lot better than most liberal activist groups do. The company has strict environmental and humane animal treatment standards about how its food is grown and raised. The company buys local. The store near me is hosting a local tasting event for its regional vendors. Last I saw, the company’s lowest wage earners make $13.15 per hour. They also get to vote on what type of health insurance they want. And they all get health insurance. The company is also constantly raising money for various philanthropic causes. When I was there today, they were taking donations for a school lunch program. In short, Whole Foods is everything leftists talk about when they talk about “corporate responsibility.”

Indeed. Up till now, liberals owned Whole Foods. It was theirs! But no more. John Mackey has committed the grave offense of dissenting from the march towards bigger and bigger government. It was bad under Bush, but its just exploded with Obama. Liberals aren’t content with the stimulus, the auto bankruptcies in which the Obama Administration broke the law and violated one of capitalism’s sacrosanct principles (that of honoring the claims of senior debt holders), a $3.4 TRILLION dollar budget. Oh and they still want cap and trade. And of course, universal health care. Does anyone else see the hubris involved? Just because our notoriously cyclical economy turned sour its time to throw away decades of wisdom and commitment to capitalist ideals? Really?

No matter, cause I have a fantastic idea! If the left truly wants to put their money where their mouth is they can stop shopping at Whole Foods and do a whole lot more shopping at farmers markets, C.S.A’s, direct from local farms, food co-ops and the like. Of course what that means is that these self-important absolutists, that is in effect what they are claiming to be, will have to spend a lot more of their time and money buying organic food from truly local sources. For this reason alone, I say, go ahead, make my day, boycott Whole Foods.

My guess is the controversy will die down soon enough, and most of the people claiming to boycott Whole Foods either won’t go through with it, once they realize how limited their options are, or never shopped there in the first place and are just lunatic lefties who hate evil right wing CEO’s who have the audacity to pen intelligent, respectful op-eds.

Wouldn’t it be funny if the end result of this fiasco was that Whole Foods shoppers took another look at their favorite food store and decided to spend their money elsewhere? If they ever truly cared about the organic quality of the foods they were buying, and they weren’t simply shopping at Whole Foods because of the symbolism, than all those shoppers can march right over to the farmers markets. I guess some good can come from a right wing nut bag daring to speak truth to power.

Tagged as: Boycott Whole Foods, Health Care Reform, John Mackey, Local Foods, Wall Street Journal, Whole Foods