How did Russell Mokhiber describe Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey?
The designer tofu has hit the fan! All over the internet, angry Whole Foods shoppers are threatening to buy their wheat grass and organic salad somewhere else. The call for a boycott of the successful health food chain, which is listed among the Fortune 500, comes in the aftermath of an anti-Obama healthcare reform op ed in the Wall Street Journal by Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey. In the article, which ran last week, Mackey argued for reform in healthcare, but not single payer, which he described as “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.” According to Mackey, there is no intrinsic right to healthcare in America or anywhere else: “just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges,” he wrote. As for the health food guru’s solution for those uninsured Americans who go sick
Boycott Whole Foods By RUSSELL MOKHIBER John Mackey is a right wing libertarian. He’s a union buster. He believes that corporations should not be criminally prosecuted for their crimes. He has just launched a campaign to defeat a single payer national health insurance system. And he’s the CEO of Whole Foods. Primo hangout of liberal Democratic yuppies. “We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health,” Mackey wrote yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. “We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health. Doing so will enrich our lives and will help create a vibrant and sustainable American society.” Yes it will, John Mackey. Yes it will. I do take that responsibility very seriously. I try to eat well. And exercise regularly. I also take my responsibility as a citizen seriously. After all, Mr. Mackey, we are all responsible for our own civic lives and our own civic health. We should take that resp
