In the latest issue of Reason Magazine, John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods, following up on an op ed piece in the August 16th edition of the Wall Street Journal (in which he made the inane statement that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t say anything about health insurance), has further denigrated the U.S. government and any health insurance that could emanate from it . In fact, his photo graces the cover of the issue.
In case readers aren’t aware of the provenance of Reason Magazine, I will point out that it is the house organ of the Koch billionaire, anti-people, ultra right wing, tea bagging political machine (the Kochtopus). The Kochtopus has housed Reason Magazine in the Reason Foundation.
The Reason piece is actually an interview with Nick Gillespie, editor, Koch apparatchik, and doyen of a warped form of libertarianism pushed by right wing billionaires like the Kochs, Mellon-Scaife, and a racist outfit called the Bradley Foundation (which put up the money for the racist-tome The Bell Curve). In the interview, Mackey explains how he came to his political views by reading the likes of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman. He cobbled the views of these typical right wing theorists together into the same form of claptrap nonsense that is generally used by right wingers to support their mean spirited views on the role of government.
In addition to the interview, the article listed the seven principles of Mackey’s health care plan. They could be boiled down to this: cut taxes and, metaphorically speaking, let people sink or swim. Isn’t that what the U.S. Government has been doing?
According to the interview, the WSJ piece caused some immediate and furious blow back from left of center shoppers, which has since “died down.” I intend to do all I can to kick it up again. Mackey states that 80% of Whole Foods shoppers have a college degree. You can bet that a large portion of that 80% is liberal and wouldn’t particularly appreciate his attacks on plans for some needed social justice. The same could probably be said about the 20% that aren’t college educated.
DON’T SPEND YOUR MONEY IN WHOLE FOODS. BOYCOTT WHOLE FOODS!