Whole Foods CEO on Joe Rogan

[The Don]

3 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

@The Don how do you know that people in the United States are paid enough when you don't even live in the US? 

I have several friends there. I talk to them on a regular basis. Those who live in the United States are lucky. Extremely lucky.

Homeless people have mental health issues. It's not capitalism that holds them back, but their own issues.

[Preety_India]

Just now, The Don said:

I have several friends there. I talk to them on a regular basis. Those who live in the United States are lucky. Extremely lucky.

Homeless people have mental health issues. It's not capitalism that holds them back, but their own issues.

Really? 

You have no clue. Sorry. 

America has had a huge problem with the Federal Minimum wage since decades now, the only lucky people were the boomers. 

Before you make such sanguine statements about the US Federal minimum, please watch this video without crying a tear. 

 

[Forestluv]

@The Don You are only acknowledging the positive aspects of capitalism and disregarding the negative aspects. For example, there is no variable for sustainability in traditional capitalism - and capitalism as fundamental problems of wealth concentration that leads to toxic asymmetric power and exploitation. For example, the housing and opioid crises in the U.S. as well as unsustainable  destruction of earth. 

That’s not to say capitalism is 100% bad, there are also some good features in moderation - such as healthy competition and incentive to be motivated, productive and reach one’s potential. Yet you seem to only consider positive aspects and are filtering out negative aspects. 

[The Don]

6 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

You have no clue. Sorry. 

It's not me that doesn't have a clue. It's the fat lady in the video that doesn't understand what poverty is.

Being homeless is a great example of living in poverty.

What do you know about 1929, the period of The Great Depression? People were constantly looking for work just to feed their families and pay for their electricity bills.

[Preety_India]

@The Don poverty is a huge problem in the United States and has nothing to do with mental illness but more to do with the minimum wage which is just not enough. 

People have to do multiple jobs if they are low tier workers. That's the actual reality of US. 

Your friends are probably on the better side of the streets. 

 

[Opo]

2 minutes ago, The Don said:

It's not me that doesn't have a clue. It's the fat lady in the video 

As soon as you insult someone on their appearance you lost the argument to the everyone who wasn't already on your side. 

[The Don]

1 minute ago, Opo said:

As soon as you insult someone on their appearance you lost the argument to the everyone who wasn't already on your side. 

It wasn't an insult, Opo. Being fat isn't cool. Your health is on the line.

[The Don]

14 minutes ago, Forestluv said:

For example, the housing and opioid crises in the U.S. as well as unsustainable  destruction of earth. 

Okay. I'll learn more about the downsides of capitalism if there are any... I'm open to it.

I don't know anything and I might be wrong, but at least it's good we're having an open conversation.

Edited November 25, 2020 by The Don
To add an "s" at the end of "downside".

[Opo]

1 minute ago, The Don said:

It wasn't an insult, Opo. Being fat isn't cool. Your health is on the line.

Don't lie it's pathetic. 

You clearly used it as an insult. 

[Preety_India]

@The Don  I remember living in the US and looking for a place to live in Washington. At that time, the rent for a very basic apartment for 1 person was $1000 in the inner city. 

I found it extremely expensive. If you are on a low paid job, you hardly save anything at all let alone save enough to pay rent. 

Even software engineers who are highly skilled find it difficult to rent homes in inner city areas. 

It's a different thing if you are living outside town. 

For a single mother doing 1 job, it's incredibly difficult to rent a proper home, pay electric bill, pay groceries and general expenses within her very limited income . 

In such conditions if your car breaks down its very difficult to get it repaired or buying another car. Without a car it's difficult to commute to your job. 

Sorry but you're painting a very rosy picture of the United States 

The reality is that people in the United States have to do multiple jobs if they have families to pull through and manage expenses. 

The only way is probably getting some additional support from government like subsidized low income housing, however this is mostly available to minorities. 

If you are poor then your kids go to public school which are very bad in the US. 

The private schools are for the rich. 

If you are poor you have to buy food from Walmart which is usually bad and organic food is much expensive and lot of people can't afford that food. 

The lady that you call fat is probably fat because she can't afford to eat good food. 

The food for the poor people on the United States is usually chemical laden, cheap and GMO based that causes people to get very fat. 

 

 

[Forestluv]

12 minutes ago, The Don said:

Okay. I'll learn more about the downsides of capitalism if there are any... I'm open to it.

I don't know anything and I might be wrong, but at least it's good we're having an open conversation.

In the U.S., pharmaceutical CEOs manipulated doctors to increase sales of opioids to patients. The pharmaceutical CEOs were caught on record scheming about the best ways to lie to doctors / patients to get as many people addicted to opioids as possible to increase their profits. Millions of people became addicted to opioids and suffered terribly. It severely hurt the Midwest economy and health care system, yet the pharmaceutical CEOs made billions in profits.  The pharamaceutical companies have asymmetric power over government, so they were able to admit this in court and get away with a small fine - they got to keep 99% of their profits. 

This is an example of toxic capitalism, yet there can be positive aspects as well. For example, the development of a covid vaccine has been rapid due to a mixture of socialist/capitalist forces. 

[Preety_India]

 

Capitalism is only good when it's driven by a social incentive. 

 

[The Don]

6 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

The lady that you call fat is probably fat because she can't afford to eat good food. 

Healthy food is not that expensive. Eggs are cheap. Meat is cheap. Dairy products are cheap. Vegetables are also cheap. Food, in general, is cheap.

Bread, potatoes, rice, and sugar, these so-called healthy foods are making people fat.

High-carbohydrate diets are the main cause of obesity.

A healthy mind doesn't need refined carbs to soothe emotional pain.

[Forestluv]

2 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

Capitalism is only good when it's driven by a social incentive. 

I see it as a combination of individual and social incentive.

It’s u healthy if I exploit others for my individual gain. Yet the other extreme is  also unhealthy. For example, forcing an individual to be a nurse because it’s good for society to have more nurses in the covid crisis. I think the best combination is having both. For example, let’s say someone’s passion is developing technology - rather than developing violent video games for personal profit, the person decides to develop AI to create renewable energy systems. The person is freely expressing their individual passion and contributing to society.

[Preety_India]

5 minutes ago, The Don said:

Healthy food is not that expensive. Eggs are cheap. Meat is cheap. Dairy products are cheap. Vegetables are also cheap. Food, in general, is cheap.

Bread, potatoes, rice, and sugar, these so-called healthy foods are making people fat.

High-carbohydrate diets are the main cause of obesity.

A healthy mind doesn't need refined carbs to soothe emotional pain.

In your country it's cheap.

In the US healthy food is expensive and manufactured food like burgers is cheap and unhealthy. 

 

[DocWatts]

13 hours ago, Preety_India said:

I like the idea of conscious capitalism but always be careful because a lot of corporatists loosely throw the word around as an effective marketing stratagem to attract prospective investors and expand customer base.. 

Often you must have heard the word "organic chemical free product" and it turns out there was nothing organic about the products other than the label. 

But I give this guy the benefit of the doubt because it's Whole Foods and Whole foods is a great retail chain. 

I think you have to put these people on a spectrum. While it's undeniable that the company he runs is far more ethical than something like Wal-Mart or McDonalds, recognize when the conscious capitalism argument is being used to distract from needed socio-economic reforms by spotlighting a handful of Good Actors in an unethical system. I could probably say the same thing about someone like Elon Musk, who deserves due credit for running a fairly ethical series of companies all things considered, but we shouldn't expect that to be the norm without enforcement mechanisms in place.

[Preety_India]

14 minutes ago, DocWatts said:

I think you have to put these people on a spectrum. While it's undeniable that the company he runs is far more ethical than something like Wal-Mart or McDonalds, recognize when the conscious capitalism argument is being used to distract from needed socio-economic reforms by spotlighting a handful of Good Actors in an unethical system. I could probably say the same thing about someone like Elon Musk, who deserves due credit for running a fairly ethical series of companies all things considered, but we shouldn't expect that to be the norm without enforcement mechanisms in place.

Agreed. Personally I still feel that Musk is also a very smart capitalist. His technology is expensive and I'm not sure if it really helps. 

The problem with these people is that no matter how useful their product, once very few people afford it, then it's useless on a collective level because it's never really bought by the collective, only by the elite so it's usability remains unproductive for the globe, the net result of such an endeavor being a false sense of accomplishment but no real benefit to the world or environment. 

More show than substance. 

Like a one hit wonder or one trick pony. 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Preety_India

[LfcCharlie4]

Conscious Capitalism, when the person using that phrase doesn't even have the slightest idea what consciousness truly is, quite ironic really. 

I genuinely don't know much about wholefoods, except the memes & a reaction video on YouTube to people meeting their soulmate in Wholefoods, genuinely one of the funniest videos I've ever seen. It was essentially a satire of Green run amok. 

@Leo Gura I see you criticize both Capitalism & Socialism from such a non-ideological perspective, it's really refreshing, as most come from a highly biased perspective & agenda. What do you see as a natural progression to Green & then Yellow in our lifetime, as you've said before outright Communism & Abolishing Private Property is unlikely to happen for 1000s of years, so just wondering your perspective on the next 'stage' of our evolution, so to speak. 

 

[LfcCharlie4]

I also wanted to add on a more personal level you can certainly create wealth “consciously” with a job / career / business / investments that is focused on helping people in whatever form that takes for you & not exploiting people. 
 

For example- look at Leo, the guy who created SOMA breathing, Wim Hof, numerous spiritual teachers, conscious nutritionists & personal trainers, it can even be done with businesses in fields like gardening, carpentry, cleaning etc etc literally anything! 
 

If you’re solving people’s problems, helping people, not exploiting customers / workers, then it’s a win/win, and can be done in SOOO many ways.

I know we talk a lot about societal change & the collective level, but meaningful work / business on a personal level can create wealth, consciously & shouldn’t be overlooked! 

[Preety_India]

@LfcCharlie4  isn't this possible in socialism?