Editor: This eye-opening post about the head of Whole Foods calling Obamacare something close to “fascism” was brought to our attention by a supporter, and we re-post here. Our friend also added this: “Not sure how many of you are still shopping at “Whole Paycheck Markets” but it seems even with Profits up about 300%, paying an average wage of less than $11.00, and charging about $80.00 for a bag of grocery’s Whole Foods still can’t afford to help with the health care costs of their employees.”
By Sy Mukherjee / ThinkProgress – RSN / Jan 17, 2013
]In an interview with NPR, Whole Foods CEO and self-professed libertarian John Mackey revived his previous criticism of Obamacare – but this time, with a new twist. While Mackey incorrectly denounced the landmark health reform law as “socialism” in a controversial 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed, the multimillionaire CEO has revised his assessment and now considers Obamacare – also incorrectly – to be closer to “fascism”:
“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 healthcare programs and these reforms.”
Although fascist nations do often control their “means of production,” Mackey seems to have forgotten that they usually utilize warfare, forced mass mobilization of the public, and politically-motivated violence against their own peoples to achieve their ends. By contrast, Obamacare regulates some of the insurance industry’s shoddiest practices and imposes a small tax penalty on Americans who refuse to purchase government-subsidized private insurance.
That hasn’t stopped other conservative critics of Obamacare from making similar statements. In 2011, former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum decried that America was falling into the throes of fascism, and that the health reform law was the “final death knell.”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s amusing when something of the left is termed fascist, not in the militaristic manner in which the right is often slandered, but rather in the means in which the government operates. There’s nothing incorrect about Mackey’s statement. He didn’t say the government, as a whole is fascist, nor that the President, himself, is a fascist. But rather, that the healthcare overhaul, is, bluntly, but a part and parcel of the ideology.
It’s refreshing when the term is used, in this case, correctly, as opposed to it being used with blind vitriol.
I’m the first to deride Mackey and WF, and this shows he’s no political philosopher. I won’t buy his book, and I won’t patronize his markets. However, he has said his was a “poor choice of words” and that he regrets it since this interview appeared. One instance:
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/18/169684978/whole-foods-ceo-john-mackey-takes-back-fascism-comment
I don’t like Whole Foods’ pricing and I despise Mackey’s attitudes. I used to shop there occasionally when I needed something I couldn’t find elsewhere, but I found alternate sources once Mackey showed his true colors and his attitude towards providing healthcare for his employees. He’s entitled to his opinions, but I’m expressing my own by boycotting his corporation. What a parasite!