He was all for socialism until he created Whole Foods, now he knows “it never works”

John Mackey said he was into socialism as a young man, but it wasn’t until he created Whole Foods Market that he realized capitalism is the only system that benefits everyone.

Speaking to Opportunity Lives, Mackey said capitalism is what best aligns with human nature, not socialism:

“Socialism always fails because it doesn’t have good incentive systems. It doesn’t work well with the reality of people ever finding themselves. It sounds good in theory. People will take care of each other, and no one will suffer, and everyone will have health-care, everybody will have free education and it sounds very good. In theory. But in reality it never works. It never has worked. And I believe it never will work.”

Mackey’s book, Conscious Capitalist, describes him perfectly, he says.  But his self-proclaimed “idealist” view of the world doesn’t overshadow reality.

“I want to make the world a better place. But you have to do that in a sort of pragmatic fashion. Not a utopian transformation,” he said.

In Mackey’s view, you can’t change human nature, and that’s why socialism has failed. The myth, he said, is that you can teach people what’s right, and then selfishness and greed disappear. But that’s never been the case. Instead, human nature demands self-interest in the preservation of ourselves and our families, and that’s why capitalism works.

Recently, Mackey debated socialist economics professor John Roemer at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Roemer wrote a book, too, Free to Lose. It’s a rebuttal of Milton Friedman’s pro-capitalist classic “Fee to Choose. Roemer blames greed for all of America’s economic ills.

Mackey described his competition: “He’s an economics professor at Yale who believes that he knows the best thing for society: 80 percent tax rates, entrepreneurs will work hard and still be creative for the goodness of their heart, and sins don’t matter.”

In the debate, Mackey argued that countries with freer markets, like Hong Kong, Chile, and Singapore, enjoy greater prosperity across the board. While socialist countries, like Greece, North Korea, and Venezuela stay on a path to poverty. Take for instance Venezuela, where another minimum wage hike is on the way — the third for the year! — to try and offset 181% inflation. Reuters states that the country’s “state-led economic system has been steadily collapsing” since 2014. That doesn’t sound like a utopia!

“Socialism has failed miserably every place it has been tried,” Mackey added. “It just hasn’t been done right.”

Though people like Roemer and Bernie Sanders like to claim socialism is a moral system, Mackey praised capitalism for making all people wealthier. And when people are wealthier,  everyone benefits.

H/T Instapundit

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