Tastes Like Burning

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods:

a guy that believes "businesses that focus strictly on profits will be voted out," so pays himself a dollar a year (!) and donates his stock profits to charity.

a guy that, in a debate with Milton Friedman (!), stated:

[H]uman nature isn't just about self-interest. It also includes sympathy, empathy, friendship, love, and the desire for social approval. As motives for human behavior, these are at least as important as self-interest. For many people, they are more important.

When we are small children we are egocentric, concerned only about our own needs and desires. As we mature, most people grow beyond this egocentrism and begin to care about others--their families, friends, communities, and countries. Our capacity to love can expand even further: to loving people from different races, religions, and countries--potentially to unlimited love for all people and even for other sentient creatures. This is our potential as human beings, to take joy in the flourishing of people everywhere. Whole Foods gives money to our communities because we care about them and feel a responsibility to help them flourish as well as possible.

The business model that Whole Foods has embraced could represent a new form of capitalism, one that more consciously works for the common good instead of depending solely on the "invisible hand" to generate positive results for society. The "brand" of capitalism is in terrible shape throughout the world, and corporations are widely seen as selfish, greedy, and uncaring.This is both unfortunate and unnecessary, and could be changed if businesses and economists widely adopted the business model that I have outlined here.

But, hey; Fuck. That. He made himself look smarter than Obama, and gave me indigestion of the soul; boycott that thon-of-a-bitch!