Whole Foods CEO Thinks Socialists Are Taking Over Schools and Corporations

John Mackey, CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods, believes that socialism is on the march and taking over institution after institution.

Mackey describes himself as a “free market capitalist” and believes in “conscious capitalism.” He called our economic system the “greatest thing humanity has ever done, and he was an early and vocal opponent of Obamacare.

“My concern is that I feel like socialists are taking over,” Mackey said on the Reason Magazine podcast on Thursday. “They’re marching through the institutions. They’re…taking over education. It looks like they’ve taken over a lot of the corporations. It looks like they’ve taken over the military. And it’s just continuing.”

“You know, I’m a capitalist at heart, and I believe in liberty and capitalism. Those are my twin values. And I feel like, you know, with the way freedom of speech is today, the movement on gun control, a lot of the liberties that I’ve taken for granted most of my life, I think, are under threat,” he added.

Mackey would love to speak out but he’s stymied by the fact that Whole Foods is owned by Amazon.com.

Independent:

During the podcast taping, Mr Mackey promised Americans that they would be hearing more about his views after his planned exit from Whole Foods, now owned by Amazon, at the end of this month.

“In six weeks, I will retire from Whole Foods, and I have muzzled myself ever since 2009,” Mr Mackey said.

“I was telling my leadership team pretty soon, you’re going to be hearing about ‘crazy John’ who’s no longer muzzled, and you’re going to have to say, ‘We can’t stop John from talking any longer,’” he continued.

Mackey’s crusade against Obamacare continues to this day.

Four years later, Mr Mackey was still going after the Obama administration’s signature health initiative, which still retained private healthcare, but expanded access to government programmes.

“In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production but they do control it and that’s what’s happening with the health care programme with these reforms and so I’d say the system is becoming more fascist,” he told NPR in 2013, before later walking some of his remarks back.

During the podcast this week, the Whole Foods executive also complained that young people don’t want to work anymore because they’re having trouble finding meaningful careers.

“Younger people aren’t quick to work because they want meaningful work,” he said. “You can’t expect to start with meaningful work. You’re going to have to earn it over time.”

Young people are so used to instant gratification that the idea of “delayed rewards” is an anathema to them. The notion that success is a path to follow,  laid out carefully in advance, doesn’t register with them. It’s why they’re such poor employees and are more concerned with issues like how woke the company is rather than its capability to succeed.

Once Mackey can take the gloves off, he should be an interesting character to follow.