Oh, the cognitive dissonance

Last week, John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods and hero to the left, wrote a well-considered and insightful column on health care reform for the Wall Street Journal. No doubt his loyal followers were pleased to learn that those capitalist pigs had finally allowed the light of liberal truth to grace their pages and picked up a copy to see what incontrovertible argument their hero had put forth in defense of nationalized health care.

A Margaret Thatcher quotation? But...but...but. This makes no sense. This guy runs an organic grocery store. He supports green energy. He requires humane treatment of animals by his suppliers. How could he stab us in the backs like this?

Turns out, many of Mr. Mackey's customers were none-to-pleased by his break from the party line, declaring their commitment to never shopping at his stores again and seemingly ignoring every point he made in the column, confused by the fact that someone could be an environmentalist who doesn't want socialized medicine.

What they don't get is that it's possible Mackey's beliefs and actions are determined not by a simplistic and all-encompassing philosophy of liberalism, but by a commitment to personal responsibility. Mackey runs his company in an environmentally friendly manner because he believes that's how it should be run and he takes personal responsibility for ensuring that's how it is run. He provides excellent medical benefits to his employees because he believes he should, and he takes personal responsibility for that, and it turns out, it works out pretty well for him and for his employees with no need to get the government involved whatsoever. Mackey rightly recognized that the reason so many companies offer such crappy healthcare benefits is that the government is too involved in the first place, making it far too difficult to run things the way they ought to be run (in both a moral and practical sense) for any company that isn't as focused on personal responsibility as his to come anywhere close to getting it right. The answer to our woes is not and never has been more coercion. It's allowing the markets the freedom to unlock the best and brightest ideas people like Mackey and countless others have to offer.