Guest Columnist: Our Country Is No Corporation
Ed Note: The following is guest column by E. R. Christenson, in response to Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey's WSJ op-ed piece last week. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the outlook or beliefs of anyone else in the IST network.
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
—Winston Churchill
Once, back in New York, my cancer-surviving-and-deep-in-medical-debt friend and I were sitting around, watching a Japanese movie. I don't remember which movie it was, but I do remember that, as the opening credits rolled, the word 'EMOTION' popped onto the screen and some happy little music played.
EMOTION was probably a Japanese film company or affiliated studio or who knows what. It was also the most affecting part of the movie, an unexpected and spare reminder that the dramatic experience - the human experience - is emotional.
This memory revisited me last week as I stood in my Austin kitchen, slicing bread.
I had learned not five minutes before of John Mackey's stance on health care, discovering that he was not on board with Obama's reform package. Because I so respect his business, it felt like a PBD: pretty big deal.
Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods and local big macher, had outed himself as a non-supporter of Obama's plan with a piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. He argued for a more hands-off, Libertarian approach to health care. Citing examples from Whole Foods' own successful insurance plan, Mackey offered eight policy remedies, including:
Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).Equalize the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits.
And the unbeatable final suggestion:
Revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
It's hard to argue with Mackey's logic, even though he made no mention of how to deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions. But let's forgive that and examine the more troubling aspects of his article.
Maybe I just expected better from an old-Austin hippie, but Mackey seemed to be using the crisp language of corporate authority to speak out against a plan that would largely benefit the poor and disenfranchised. By offering mostly bullet points about an alternate, 'non-socialist' plan, he also appeared to be doing the deed without much feeling.
That raised a red flag for me because health food nuts like Mackey are deeply passionate people (I'm a health food nut into other health food nuts, which is how I know). Second, health food nuts' movement towards health is often rooted in the painful experience of being or feeling unhealthy, or being or feeling surrounded by something that is sick - literally or figuratively. It surprised me that Mackey didn't identify with the struggle. It felt like he was out of touch, maybe even with himself.
I would not normally come down so hard on anyone, but Mackey is an opinion-maker in the local and global community, and what he says really counts. I raised my eyebrows at some of his thoughts:
Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health.Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending - heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity - are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.
Mackey's words struck me as if he had grabbed a megaphone from his Ivory Tower and shouted, punishingly, into the drive-through window of a White Castle.
So many things about mainstream American industry (and attendant culture) encourage poor health habits, and profit from them. It is appreciably difficult for Americans to lose that big butt, control diabetes by eating well, and limit stress if they have children, commute by car, or encounter limiting factors like money and time.
Considering this, Mackey's perceptive powers suddenly seemed diminished. Conflict also seemed inherent in his argument when he encouraged a more balanced American lifestyle (something that would actually require a tremendous amount of government intervention), yet, in the same breath, found great fault with socialized medicine. Note Mackey's fear-mongering language:
All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.Although Canada has a population smaller than California, 830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor's Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million.
When I read this, I thought of that old aphorism: democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. Could not the same be said of socialized health care? No system of medicine is perfect, but that one seems preferable, at least. (Plus, Mackey's statistics appeared bogus because, in California, there are over 1 million undocumented immigrants. Most of them are 'in line' for health care coverage, right?)
I also bristled when Mackey went all 'founding fathers' on his well-educated readers. He sounded like he was fixing to put on a powdered wig:
Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This 'right' has never existed in America.
Only a privileged, insulated person could write such a thing. That is because there's no explicit mention of slavery, abortion, homosexuality or immigration in the original documents, either. I know I am not the first to make this point.
And, while Mackey might be correct when he asserts that (universal) health care is not an American 'right,' wellness is deeply connected to our national aspirations to uphold life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.
For these reasons, I cannot trust John Mackey's arguments, though I remain glad he felt engaged enough by health care reform to make them.
I do, however, trust Barack Obama's arguments. This, while not entirely understanding his plan. And who does? Only about 20 people. Very problematic.
Still, I'm with it, because Obama's actions seem to be profoundly - and righteously - guided by personal experiences that he speaks openly about. Not legal experiences. Not corporate experiences. Life experiences.
Barack Obama's mother, Ann Soetoro, died of cancer in 1995. She was in her early 50's. After being diagnosed, Soetoro's last months were apparently spent haggling with health insurance companies over coverage (and decreasing her chances for survival, in the process).
Obama has not forgotten, and we see the consequence in his actions today, as the political is ultimately personal.
Despite the moral backbone of his health care overhaul - and because of his difficulty in figuring out how to effectively promote it - the President will likely see The Plan morph into some kind of ObamaCare and MackeyCare compromise.
But in the face of compromise, let's remember: our country is no corporation. Let's make sure we don't run it like one.
EMOTION.
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