John Mackey is the CEO of Whole Foods Market, Inc., the world's most successful organic grocery chain, with 167 stores and almost 30,000 employees.

In 2004, Whole Foods had sales approaching $4 billion. 

A profile in the April 6, 1998 issue of Forbes magazine, entitled "New Age Capitalist" described Mackey as a "bushy-haired libertarian" and "crusader for capitalism" who is concerned about health and the environment, and who voted Libertarian in the previous presidential election.

The article says that when left-leaning journalists began attacking him for resisting union demands last year, Mackey responded by putting together "Beyond Unions," a 19-page summary of his libertarian views that included quotes from libertarian giants like Ludwig von Mises, Milton and Rose Friedman, Henry Hazlitt, and Robert Nozick.

Here's what Mark Skousen says about John Makey:

"His company has established a set of core values, a concept of business that emphasizes social value and voluntary cooperation. Business should be 'a community working together to create value for others.' Whole Foods emphasizes customer service, quality, empowerment of all its employees, cultivation of small local vendors. His management philosophy focuses on self-managing teams. There's a climate of trust and open information. For instance, everyone knows everyone's compensation. Employee participation is encouraged; employees vote on what benefits they receive. In business, 'profit is created through voluntary exchange, not exploitation.' Capitalism is the solution to poverty. Taxes are too high. He denounced socialism, Marxism, and nationalized health care, noting that a medical savings account system (Whole Foods has one), not a single payer system, is the real solution to the health crisis. John Mackey is a brilliant entrepreneur and thinker, a social advocate who is making inroads into the American culture in a way no other libertarian has ever done."

Mackey delivered an inspiring and provocative banquet speech at FreedomFest, held in May 2004 in Las Vegas, in which he presented his views of why the freedom movement has failed in many ways. He offered advice on how libertarians can better market the ideas of liberty. (Find out more and learn how you can receive a tape of that speech free from the Advocates.)

Books & Tapes

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