This weekend’s WSJ interview featured John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods. It was an interesting chat that included topics like healthy eating, unions, government profligacy, and, of course, health-care reform. It’s refreshing to hear things from a business owner’s perspective, something that gets lost in all the noise of the day. He made one point along those lines that I found particularly impactful:
‘Before I started my business, my political philosophy was that business is evil and government is good. I think I just breathed it in with the culture. Businesses, they’re selfish because they’re trying to make money…Once you start meeting a payroll you have a little different attitude about those things.’ This insight explains why he thinks it’s a shame that so few elected officials have ever run a business. ‘Most are lawyers,’ he says, ‘which is why Washington treats companies like cash dispensers.’
