Outgoing Whole Foods CEO issues stark warning about encroachment of socialists: 'They're taking over everything'



Outgoing Whole Foods CEO John Mackey issued a dire warning about the encroachment of socialism in an interview this week.

What did Mackay say?

Mackey announced last September that he was retiring from managing the supermarket chain that he co-founded more than 40 years ago. But before his departure from Whole Foods at the end of August, Mackey is warning Americans about socialism.

"My concern is that I feel like socialists are taking over," Mackey said on the "Reason" podcast this week.

"They're marching through the institutions. They're taking over everything," he added. "They're taking 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."

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey ( Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Describing himself as a "capitalist at heart," Mackey blamed socialists and socialism for eroding many of the liberties that Americans once universally believed were fundamental to our way of life.

"I believe in liberty and capitalism. Those are my twin values," he said. "And I feel like, you know, with the way freedom of speech is today, the movement on gun control, a lot of the liberties that I've taken for granted most of my life, I think, are under threat."

What is the background?

Mackey is no stranger to warning Americans about the perils of socialism.

In a 2020 interview, for example, Mackey described socialism as the "path of poverty."

"They talk about 'trickle-down wealth,' but socialism is trickle-up poverty," Mackey said. "It just impoverishes everything."

Capitalism, on the other hand, is "greatest thing humanity has ever created," according to Mackey.

"Capitalism is the greatest thing humanity's ever done. We've told a bad narrative, and we've let the enemies of business and the enemies of capitalism put out a narrative about us that's wrong, it's inaccurate — and it's doing tremendous damage to the minds of young people," Mackey said.

"The Marxists and socialists, the academic community is generally hostile to business. It always has been. This is not new," he explained.

Anything else?

In his retirement from Whole Foods, Mackey is likely to be more outspoken about politics. In fact, he told Reason that he will no longer be "muzzled."

"Pretty soon, you’re gonna hear about ‘Crazy John’ who’s no longer muzzled," he joked.

Whole Foods CEO blasts socialism, explains how universities corrupt young people: 'Trickle-up poverty'



Whole Foods CEO John Mackey blasted socialism during a recent interview, explaining such economic policies cause increased poverty.

During a discussion hosted by the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, Mackey did not mince words — he said socialism is the "path of poverty."

"They talk about 'trickle-down wealth,' but socialism is trickle-up poverty," Mackey explained. "It just impoverishes everything."

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Mackey explained that capitalism, on the other hand, is the "greatest thing humanity has ever created," and blamed intellectuals in universities for corrupting young people into thinking that capitalism is bad.

"Capitalism is the greatest thing humanity's ever done. We've told a bad narrative, and we've let the enemies of business and the enemies of capitalism put out a narrative about us that's wrong, it's inaccurate — and it's doing tremendous damage to the minds of young people," Mackey said.

"The Marxists and socialists, the academic community is generally hostile to business. It always has been. This is not new," he explained.

Socialism is favored by far-left progressive politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Mackey went on to explain that not all progressivism is bad, but that socialism must be abandoned.

"We have to recognize that some of the progressive insights are important and they shouldn't go away, but we can't throw out capitalism and replace it with socialism, that will be a disaster," Mackey said, Just The News reported.

"Socialism has been tried 42 times in the last 100 years, and 42 failures, it doesn't work, it's the wrong way. We have to keep capitalism, I would argue, we need conscious capitalism," he continued.

According to Mackey, capitalism and business innovation overall is responsible for increased living conditions worldwide, has increased global literacy rates, and is even responsible for increasing life expectancy.

Business, therefore, should be evaluated "in terms of its value-creation," Mackey said.

"For its customers, and all the jobs that it creates for its employees and the residual or tangential effects that happen when it trades with suppliers, who also trade for voluntary reasons — they're benefitting and they're prospering as a result," the businessman explained.

Whole Foods, which was bought by Amazon in 2017, employs about 100,000 people, Mackey said.

John Mackey, Whole Foods Market CEO on Conscious leadership | LIVE STREAM youtu.be