Whole Foods CEO: "Socialists are taking over"

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey fears that socialism is on the rise in the U.S.

"My concern is that I feel like socialists are taking over," Mackey, who is set to retire from the Amazon-owned grocery chain at the end of the month after 44 years at the company, said in a podcast this week with Reason Magazine. "They're marching through the institutions."

Socialists have "taken 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 — so I'm deeply concerned," he added.

Mackey, who espouses the idea of "conscious capitalism" — which he describes as a management philosophy focused on ethical ways of doing business — also questioned the work ethic of younger Americans.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/whole-foods-ceo-socialists-are-taking-over/ar-AA10zb8F

Fuck you and your overpriced groceries.

[uponit7771]

1. Another idiot that doesn't know what socialism is other than anything they don't like

[Celerity]

33. this is the same POS who compared Obamacare to fascism

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/01/16/169413848/whole-foods-founder-john-mackey-on-fascism-and-conscious-capitalism

What he doesn't think is right is President Obama's health overhaul and the new costs that coverage requirements will place on businesses.

When Inskeep asks him if he still thinks the health law is a form of socialism, as he's said before, Mackey responds:

"Technically speaking, it's more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it — and that's what's happening with our health care programs and these reforms."

[TheBlackAdder]

37. Marx warned about the bourgeoisie. John Winthrop warned about wealthy not redistributing.

.

John Winthrop's A Modell of Christian Charity (original had Modell with two Ls). which was Ronald Reagan's favorite read, warned about the wealthy mistreating the poorer classes and that they would break the yoke of oppression. He warned that the wealthy needs to give back their excesses to the poorer people at least once per year. While it's Regan's favorite read, he misquotes "city on a hill" to "shining city on a hill" which to this day Republicans misquote because they are too lazy to actually read it.

18:45 Mark in Regan's Final Address

https://www.academia.edu/7203603/John_Winthrop_A_Model_of_Christian_Charity_Readers_Edition_2014_


Good Old 'Invisible Hand' Adam Smith, said that for capitalism to thrive, there needs to be a graduated income tax that levies higher taxes on the wealthy than the poor. This is another political theorist that Republicans love to quote but fucks up and perverts practically everything he mentions.


This brings us back to Karl Marx, who Republicans demonize, but use his theories and strategies to crush poorer people, to create a bourgeoisie class of elites and a large proletariat class. Sooner or later competition in the high end pushed some of the wealthy to the proletariat. Marx was right about most everything he wrote, except for his vision that communism would be the final utopian end-point. This is 'mode of production' communism, not Stalinism or Chinese Communism which is authoritarian.

These economic perverts ignore the wise advise of political theorists for the sake of the buck.

.

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. He obviously has no clue what the word means

[rzemanfl]

17. GBYMR again. My fingers are tired. n/t

[applegrove]

3. Idiot.

[Deminpenn]

4. Does this dude understand that the people who shop

at this store mostly support those policies against which he is railing?

[TomSlick]

11. Exactly.

[Sympthsical]

41. I've long wondered if he was just punking liberals

He took advantage of a cultural trend (organic whatever), priced everything at a premium, then made out like a bandit.

For a decent chunk of the people who shop there, it's about being seen shopping there. It's a cultural item.

I have never understood it. I was on a work trip a few years back. They gave me a $40 daily stipend. There was a WF next to the hotel, so I figured I'd eat healthy and just get an assortment of items from their food bar to keep in my room.

Yeah, the entire $40 was gone.

I have never eaten a single thing from there that left me thinking, "This was absolutely worth the 300% mark up!"

Ron Swanson gets it.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

5. Buh-bye, cheese dick.

Thanks for reminding me why I don’t shop WF.

[EnergizedLib]

6. Dang

John Mackey the tight end > John Mackey the CEO.

There’s the buzzword, socialist.

Do young Americans lack work ethic? Or do they just refuse to conform like previous generations did?

[MagickMuffin]

7. Hey Mackie I think you're confusing fascist with socialist

"Conscious Capitalism" I question your ethics and your inability to grasp the concept of working conditions.

[hatrack]

12. "Conscious Capitalism" - "Greenwashed Groceries"

With a side of price gouging.

[kacekwl]

8. In a lot of cases the CEO of the

company is the dumbest in the room.

[TigressDem]

9. OK about young American work ethics.... he could have a point.

NOT ALL young Americans, but I was a manager for a minute and we'd get young people applying for a job.

The interview would be scheduled and they would ghost us. No call. No text. To me that is unfathomable.


BUT YEAH, I totally had the idea that Whole Foods was all about being value based. Would not have expected it's CEO to be a tRumper. Sigh. Hiding behind DEM values and bitching about DEMs being socialists. Idiot.

[Samrob]

16. You probably were dealing with the young spawn of the privileged trying for a job to add to some

resume. The young minority kids I know are feverishly trying to get employment. My grandson who is 17 is working two jobs for the summer and will continue with one job on the weekends when school starts in two weeks. His kid brother who is a year younger applied to 12 jobs and was not offered any. Most said he was too young at 16 but he knows to friends who were hired by the places he tried and they were hired. Same ole, some ole.

So no, I am not going to lay that work ethics issue at the feet of all young people.

[TigressDem]

18. Not all, but Whole Foods was probably hiring from the "burbs"

We were far away from the inner city and running two cell phone repair shops.

These were young people who were also educated and skilled with electronics. The one we hired was a hard worker and going to college for computer repair.

It's just this whole trend of people not calling once they have an interview if something else comes up.

[TigressDem]

21. Oh and my grandkids LOVE when it snows so they can go out and shovel for $$$$.

My 16 year old grandson has a good work ethic, but he's running rides at a huge mall and is usually early because he can ride them free before his shift.

His sister is the better worker, gets $20 upfront from her regular customers for shoveling because they KNOW she will do a good job.

The youngest is still just happy to get money to do stuff.

[walkingman]

10. When Mackey was a young man in Austin he was pretty cool but once he got

wealthy he became just another greedy bastard.

[dalton99a]

13. The stupid piece of shit called Obamacare 'fascism'

[cilla4progress]

14. Phony ass

pretender

[budkin]

15. Libertarian POS

Fuck him

[Skittles]

19. he sounds like the Cult

I'm surprised he didn't whine about Soros.

[IcyPeas]

20. He is a libertarian from Texas...

Nevertheless, he rejects the scientific evidence for dangerous anthropogenic global warming, believing instead that "climate change is perfectly natural and not necessarily bad."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mackey_(businessman)

[Just A Box Of Rain]

22. Unfortunately, many people have a vested interest in misrepresenting the realities

of socialism as a political ideology and its legacy over the past 100 years or so.

[milestogo]

23. What an idiot.

[spanone]

24. Like Kool Aid john?

[BlueIdaho]

25. Just another fat cat I don't need in my life...

Think I’ll let my wallet do the walking - so long Mackey.

[ymetca]

26. The pointless work

of maintaining a vanity supermarket is precisely what is killing the planet. It was never needed in the first place. Whole Foods is just another in the long litany marketing/re-branding schemes designed to enrich a shrinking minority of the rentier class.

Work for work's sake is nonsense. Hence why capitalists hate education, as they see schools as just another "market opportunity" to churn out cogs for the horror machine, gobbling up every last planetary resource.

Capitalists believe schools should create dutiful workers to fill jobs, not educate more enlightened human beings.

[kimbutgar]

27. Rarely if ever I shop Whole Foods which I call whole paycheck

Overpriced food and over rated.

[ecstatic]

28. Not smart

Coming for his base like that.

[Wounded Bear]

29. We need a healthy infusion of some socialism here...

[ananda]

30. I went to Natural Grocers today instead of WF.

It was nice.

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. I'm by no means an economist, but it seems to me the old time Capitalists are relying on ....

the classic "Protestant Work Ethic" to make their flawed business models succeed.

For 2 centuries business seemed to have been able to rely on the constant flow of hardworking, marginally poor people who would take any and all the crap a business would shovel their way. These were the "Keep your nose to the grindstone" types, the reliably on time factory and farm worker who did what he/she was told and didn't make waves.

Finally people are waking up to the fact that it doesn't have to be that way: Note the rise in Unionization we have seen over the last 10 years.

Carlin said it well 17 years ago;

[Withywindle]

44. The sense of entitlement is strong with the RICH, not the workers

Feeling entitled to an endless supply of cheap labor that's too desperate or too "bootstrap" brainwashed to ever question the horrific ways they're overworked, humiliated, underpaid, and devalued.

How many times have workers rightfully complained about the shameful way they're treated and been told "you're lucky to have a job at all"?

Retail and service workers especially - often young, not from privileged backgrounds - taught that it's virtuous and noble to endure starvation wages, unpredictable scheduling, no benefits, penalized for being sick or injured, blamed for everything that goes wrong, forced to suck it up in the face of abusive customers and managers...and STILL not making enough to even afford a decent place to live. No wonder those who can are opting out or standing up.

Unions for EVERYONE. The workers fighting to organize under adverse conditions are American heroes.

[A HERETIC I AM]

45. Could not agree with you more.

Unions for EVERYONE. The workers fighting to organize under adverse conditions are American heroes.

Absolutely god damned right!

[Demsrule86]

32. Amazon owns Whole Foods.

[Celerity]

36. and you NEVER hear amazon complain about what is a an actual reality... corporate socialism

most profits are kept privatised, many losses are socialised unto the backs of the average taxpayers.

Many of the giant firms also pay little to no federal income taxes despite making billions in profits.


Amazon Avoids More Than $5 Billion in Corporate Income Taxes, Reports 6 Percent Tax Rate on $35 Billion of US Income

https://itep.org/amazon-avoids-more-than-5-billion-in-corporate-income-taxes-reports-6-percent-tax-rate-on-35-billion-of-us-income/

Key Points:

Amazon avoided about $5.2 billion in corporate federal income taxes in 2021.

The company reported record profits of more than $35 billion (75 percent higher than its 2020 record haul) and paid just 6 percent of those profits in federal corporate income taxes.

If Amazon had no tax breaks, it would have paid 21 percent of its profits in corporate income taxes, or more than $7.3 billion. Instead, it paid $2.1 billion.

Amazon’s annual financial report released in early February paints a vivid picture of a company that is edging toward monopoly status—and doing so at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

The company reported a record $35 billion in U.S. pretax income for fiscal year 2021, a haul that is 75 percent more than its 2020 U.S. earnings of $20 billion. Just as notable, the company’s effective federal income tax rate of 6 percent means it avoided about $5.2 billion of federal income tax in 2021. If Amazon had paid the statutory 21 percent tax rate on its 2021 U.S. income without any tax breaks, that would have meant a tax bill of more than $7.3 billion. Instead, the company reports a current federal income tax expense of $2.1 billion.

Amazon’s 2021 federal income tax payment is comparatively significant for a profitable company that paid less than $0 in the first year of the Trump-GOP tax law. But the company’s continuous tax avoidance adds up over time. Over the past four years, Amazon reported a total federal tax rate of just 5.1 percent on over $78 billion of U.S. income.

[stopdiggin]

34. What the F this dude smokin'?

check out where the wealth has been going over the past 20 years (and actually a lot longer, but even more exaggerated in that time frame). If there's any kind of socialist 'push' in this country - they're doing a right shi**y job of it!

[Yavin4]

35. FDR saved American capitalism from socialism and fascism by using social democracy

Starting with Reagan, American capitalists have been systematically dismantled many of FDR's programs. So, it's not surprising that both socialism and fascism are both on the rise again.

Read a history book, John Mackey.

[walkingman]

39. Exactly, it is a constant struggle to just keep the benefits that we have in America.

[Liberal In Texas]

38. During the ACA debate he said that people didn't need health care, they just needed to

eat food from Whole Foods. He's a libertarian idiot.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

40. So you company never accepted tax breaks ?

That is capitalist socialism and it dilutes the tax base for the community !


It is easy to understand, but your selfish ass, doesn't want too, I wonder why ?

[Hotler]

42. Move to Hungry nt

[Coventina]

43. Another corporate idiot who has no idea what socialism is.

Proud to say I've never set foot in one of his shitty stores.