The latest print edition of National Review features an interesting blurb about Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods.
Imagine explaining this in 1960: Whole Foods Market, a high-end grocery specializing in “organic” food and other rarefied tastes, has been acquired by the online clearinghouse Amazon, a ruthlessly efficient deliverer of goods that also offer a discounted service for people who used food stamps. Whole Foods is a favorite of a certain species of well-heeled urban progressive, but its founder and chief executive, John Mackey, is equal parts hippied and Ayn Rand character, a libertarian crusader who famously took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to denounce the so-called Affordable Care Act. Mackey describes himself as a practitioner of “conscious capitalism.” Amazon’s Jeff Bezos leans in a libertarian-ish direction as well. But the real testament to the philosophy of Mackey and Bezos isn’t their public statements — it is the businesses they have built, both of which have made the world a better place, one with many more possibilities. Call it “conscious capitalism” — or just call it capitalism.
