Capitalism sucks, but not as bad as all other systems

     His philosophy at the time, he explains, wasn't exactly pro-profit or
     pro-capitalist: “Politically, I drifted to the Left and embraced the
     ideology that business and corporations were essentially ‘evil” because
     they  sought profits. I believed that government was ‘good” (if the
     ‘right” people had control of it) because it altruistically worked for the
     public interest.”

     He'd been taught, Mackey explains, that “business and capitalism were
     based on exploitation: exploitation of consumers, workers, society and the
     environment.” After a year in business, he saw a reality that didn't mesh
     with his decades of anti-business indoctrination.

     “I believed that ‘profit” was a necessary evil at best and certainly not a
     desirable goal for society as a whole,” he writes. “However, becoming an
     entrepreneur completely changed my life. Everything I believed about
     business was proven to be wrong.”

     Via [1]Business Pundit, [2]The Transformation of John Mackey

   While the whole [3]Enron thing makes me feel that Ken Lay, Jeffry Skilling
   and Andy Fastow should be tarred, feathered, stripped of everthing they own
   (including the tar and the feathers after they've been applied) and then
   placed naked in stockades in the middle of Wall Street because of corporate
   excesses, not all companies are like that.

   This bit is telling:

     That's not the way Mackey's customers and employees saw it. Despite losing
     half his initial investment in the first year of business, Mackey was
     nevertheless accused of greed and exploitation. “Our customers thought our
     prices were too high, our employees thought they were underpaid, the
     vendors would not give us large discounts, the community was forever
     clamoring for donations, and the government was slapping us with endless
     fees, licenses, fines and taxes.”

     Via [4]Business Pundit, [5]The Transformation of John Mackey

   That tells me that a lot of people don't understand basic business or basic
   economics (and if they did, something like Enron might not have happened).
   Running a business isn't easy, nor cheap.

References

   1. http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/john_mackeys_transformation.php
   2. http://www.mises.org/story/2202
   3. gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2006/06/12.2
      http://boston.conman.org/2006/06/12.2
   4. http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/john_mackeys_transformation.php
   5. http://www.mises.org/story/2202