Pretty much all of it. Sadly, No! (a lefty site I frequently visit for its weapons grade snark) has a better take down on this than I am likely to come up with, so I will offer it.
Shrug. As far as I see it, he has his opinions and I have mine. I can take what someone says, agree with some parts and disagree with some parts.
Speaking of effective boycotts: Those dirty fucking hippies at ColorOfChange.org, incensed at Glenn Beck’s racist blathering about Obama (Beck: Obama’s “a racist” and has a “deep-seated hatred for white people”) have responded by launching a campaign to peel away his advertisers, carried out by writing heartfelt but polite letters to the companies whose ads appear during his show. As the group reported on Thursday, it’s been quite effective so far.
The campaign has been taken up by those dirty fucking hippies at Daily Kos and other such liberal hellholes, who have added their mite to the ColorOfChange effort. As the most recent of several diaries on this topic at DK notes,
So consumer boycotts and protests can in fact be quite useful. Do I think Beck’s program will be pulled from the lineup and he will lose his platform to spew his drivel? No. But I can see his corporate masters leaning on him to tone it down if he no longer makes a profit for them. And it’s all thanks to the workings of the free market and free speech! How American is that?
It works for me. I wouldn’t be on a crusade against Whole Foods, but I damn sure would never shop at Glenn Beck Mart. Ever. He can say what ever he wants. I can shop where ever I want. Whole Food yes. Glenn Beck no.
Hey! You must be Guns&Liberty…
Found a blog article by Mackey on the WF website, which puts a slightly different patina on this turd.
Assuming we take him at his word, that takes care of the “ObamaCare” bit- not his words.
However, he still implied a bunch of things about foreign UHC systems which are untrue or misleading. I won’t be boycotting Whole Foods over this, but I’ve never shopped there before anyway. $12 bananas are an acquired taste, I think.
To all those suggesting that people who say they won’t shop at WF any more- thanks to Mackey’s article- are somehow trying to quash freedom of speech, I invite you to read the comments section on the blog, which is full of conservatives gushing about how they’re going to start shopping there thanks to the article.
Because I want him to change his politics and stop supporting positions that are not in my interest. I’m very selfish that way.
Eh, its also had an undercurrent that some people have found distasteful for a long time. A mergers and acquistion strategy that has squeezed out a lot of small players. A WalMart like approach to dealing with their vendors - that has created an imbalance in their favor with the processed natural foods companies (companies like Annie’s, Amy’s or Imagine). There has been a whole lot of big conglomerate takeover in the business (Morningstar Farms is a General Mills company as I recall). There behavior has been to press the small players out of business - including co-ops. Mackay’s behavior during the Wild Oats acquisition was at the very least unethical.
They have had really great employment policies - similar to the one’s Starbucks has maintained a good reputation for…including employer provided health care. But for Mackay to get involved in the health care debate is sort of “conflict of interest” anyway - his company has reached the economies of scale (and supply chain relationships) to be able to afford health care for its employees (their ability to charge higher prices based on a brand image of quality also helps) - anything that would allow smaller natural foods grocers a chance to offer a good health care plan for their employees knocks out their advantage in being able to hire good people - and will impact one of their brand points of differentiation (we treat our hourly employees well).
How dare you be reasonable! I just don’t get those liberals who want to turn him into a boogeyman and deprive him, and his very liberal work force, of their business. Perhaps they need to visit the Whole Foods deli and get a portion of The Big Picture with a side of Fiscal Responsibility.
OTOH, Mr. Moto buys a cheesburger and fries from Osama bin Laden at least twice a week.
I think that’s very fair minded of him.
And if those things got him a pitting the discussion would make a lot more sense. Bu the OpEd is what did it. Of course, one thing that would have to be taken into account is that you can’t blame a CEO for wanting to achieve economy of scale and a better return for stockholders.
Good points. But the fact is that companies like Starbucks and Whole Foods have been able to treat their employees so well because they are dominant and have scale. Your last point is particularly astute. Where I live, it used to be that Starbucks had much better employees than competitors, due in part to the fact that they paid them more. But then the city passed a living wage ordinance and they were unable to retain the pay advantage they had had. Result: the Starbucks employees in my neighborhood are now run of the mill.
Yeah, I’m sort of amused by this sort of thing being news to anyone. I would have thought most of the “shop ethically” types would have picked up on the Wild Oats thing - if not the supplier pressure. But I’m more reacting to “model of socially responsible” - their has been a cloud for a long time - just not necessarily a cloud that the public had caught in force.
The ideas in the OpEd are either flawed, reflecting a poor understanding of how health insurance works, or self-interested, reflecting the narrow interests of the small population of CEOs of companies employing large workforces of relatively healthy 20 and 30 somethings for typically short periods of time. Some of the ideas are both of those things.
First, consider the recommendation that insurance not be required to cover things. In practice, this means people bear the full cost of those things. Think about pregnancy. Who would buy health insurance that covers pregnancy? [Hint: people planning to get pregnant in the next year.] How much would insurance companies charge for the coverage that covers pregnancy? [Hint: The average cost of prenatal care + delivery + markup]. At that price, would you buy the insurance if you were planning to have a kid? [Hint: you should, because you might be one of those people who winds up with 6 or even 7-figure bills for a premature birth.] Would everyone buy the insurance for pregnancy at full cost? Heck no. So someone is going to be stuck with the consequences of sick babies. A further flaw of this suggestion is seen in mental health and substance abuse coverage. Are we going to count on the addicts and mentally ill to opt in for that? Sure, that will work well.
For another example of the self-serving and flawed, the suggestion that we just eat and exercise our way to longevity. Wellness saves companies money, because medical bills after 65 are the government’s responsibility under the current system. So if a company can postpone some heart attacks and cancer until age 65+, it’s all good. When you think of paying the healthcare costs of a population over the whole lifespan, longevity is not such a sure bet for cost savings. Just because you have a later death doesn’t mean you’ll have a cheaper one.
The only idea there I have some support for is the high-deductible health plans for those who want them, and as far as I know those would still be available under proposed reforms. But the premise of high-deductible plans is to get people to shop around for care. We’re not going to solve the cost problem by getting 3 price quotes to for a throat culture. And nobody’s getting 3 price quotes when they’re having a heart attack. Still, such plans are a good representation of what insurance should be and I support their availability.
I didn’t shop at WF much before, and I doubt that will change.
Alright, I’ve gotta begrudgingly admit that I work for Whole Foods. Part-time. I fully endorse any boycott of this company. I’ve actually been boycotting my own employer for about a year now, as John Mackey is an objectivist union-busting piece of shit. Though I do have decent insurance, it’s true. Regardless, being a Whole Foods Team Member is like being in a demeaning, bizarre cult. Glassy-eyed adherence to the company’s bizarre pseudo-hippy talking points is the only way to have any hope of advancement. And without a union, we have no recourse against politically-motivated firings, which are fairly common. We were also recently subjected to mandatory anti-union propaganda ‘classes’ as a response to Obama’s being elected and his friendliness towards organized labor.
I work there because it’s a job that I could get. And it helps pay the bills that playing Celtic fiddle around Chicago don’t entirely cover.
Yeah, Mackey’s got a great thing going. He hires liberal douches to work for low wages (because supposedly they get some say in how the store is run etc etc) and he charges high prices to liberal douche customers. It’s a win-win for Mackey, bilding an enpire on the backs of liberal douches.
Of course he’s free to speak up about his politics. And as much as I disagree with him I give him some respect for doing so when he must know it will hurt his business.
Whole Foods is not just selling food. They sell the feel good about how you are helping the planet because you are willing to spend more for environmentally and politically correct foods experience. Sure some right wingers or slightly conservative moderates buy organic and such because they perceive it is healthier or that it tastes better and are not all swayed buy the feel-good circuses. But a sizable bit of their bases is swayed by that and of them a sizable bit is also pretty far left of average. Those people don’t like knowing that their money is going to someone very much not like-minded. Ignorance of it is one thing; knowing it is another.
I imagine that some conservatives never especially enjoyed Ben and Gerry’s ice cream (back when they owned it) for the same reasons. (For my part in the Chicago area, I just no longer enjoy Oberwiess knowing what the owner’s politics are.)
You leave your business cards by the organic mangoes, don’t you?
You’ve got a real envy for liberal douches going on, my friend. Is it because they occasionally get inside of a vagina?
“Deprive”? I didn’t know he was entitled to their business.
I’m sorry! I promise I’ll never do it again 