Not Shopping at Whole Foods Anymore

I was a bit excited when I moved to my new place that there was a Trader Joe's and a Whole Foods in biking distance (~2 miles) from me. Won't be shopping at Whole Foods anymore.

I don't mind that their CEO is a false-talking-point-spewing, jackass conservative (lots of CEOs are) as much as I mind that he decided to use his position to show the entire company as holding the same view. The only reason that anyone gives a damn about what John Mackey thinks is because he is CEO of Whole Foods. You know, where all those (us) dirty fucking hippies shop.

Smart business to alienate the lion's share of your customers. Yes, I'm sure that plenty of conservatives--like those lords and masters of Wall Street--also shop there, but there's only so many over priced organic cucumbers they can go through in a week.

Quick point by point retort to big John's 8 reforms:

1. Stupid - high deductable insurance discurages people from doing things like routine checkups and serious problems are less likely to be caught early, when they are easier (cheaper) to fix. HSA's are an inadequate fix.

2. Stupid - tax breaks should be reduced or eliminated not compounded, particularly in such a way that companies will have less incentive to provide for their employees, the result would be fewer people without insurance.

3. Eh - sounds good but where these have been rolled back so far the result has been worse insurance for people, and less real competition, not more. Basically leads to mega insurance co.'s like AIG. Just think: more companies that are "too big to fail," we all know how swimmingly that worked.

4. Stupid - means more exceptions, and worse coverage...and more uninsured and more bankrupted and more government footing the bill.

5. Good idea...maybe - needs details, and really hard to figure out how to do fairly, but it could result in substantial savings.

6. Eh - what the hell good would this actually do? People don't have sufficient understanding of medicine or its costs to make an informed decision. e.g. Checkups are actually more profitable than insanely expensive MRI tests, because there is no $20+ million instrument to pay for.

7. Again, good idea but no details. Also, this is part of the total Obama plan, so for him to put it here as a counter is kind of, well, Stupid.

8. Stupid - Americans are charitable, but this is just an idiotic statement, to believe this you must first believe that charity has eliminated hunger and homelessness and oh, wait, nevermind...

So he makes lots of stupid (though likely quite profitable) points, a couple that are maybe not stupid, but neither are they good, one good point that is already part of Obama's plan (as stated) and finally one good point that is not part of Obama's plan (afaik), of course he doesn't actually have any meaningful insight to offer on it. And this ignores the rest of his heartless idiocy.