However, I did not mean to imply that I was against the company acting "all corporation-y" (watch at your own peril) or that I was complaining about so-called abuses of capitalism. I'm sure that somewhere in our original contract is a clause that gives the financial institution the right to change the terms whenever economic conditions necessitate. It's probably in the very small print that most of us don't read. That's fine. It's also fine that the company exercised that clause.
It's even more fine that I exercised my option to cancel the contract. The company took the risk that I would when they raised my interest rates. It is definitely too bad, though. I have never had a problem with Dell products. I still don't. It's their financing division that I complained about.
Today is a different story. Many of you may have heard about an op-ed piece written for the Wall Street Journal by John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods. In the article, Mackey, who is a libertarian, proposed a free-market health care alternative to the one being pushed by our current administration. He has come under fire for speaking his mind (and no doubt for daring to challenge the current proposal), and for challenging what seems to be the prevailing view that health care is a right.
Those who disagree with Mackey's views have vowed to boycott Whole Foods, thereby cutting off their hummus to spite their falafels. They have every right to do so. A boycott is one of the surest ways to get one's opinions across about how a company is performing. It hits them where it hurts, in their balance sheets. I decided to boycott Dell, or at least CIT Bank, didn't I?
I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and I read Mackey's piece. The link to his op-ed article is here. Read and decide for yourselves. In it, Mackey states: "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."
I agree with Mackey. So, instead of boycotting Whole Foods, I decided to champion them. I can't afford to shop them every day, but they have stuff I want, and stuff I need. I should say that one of the things that I have discovered about this neck of the woods is that I don't like the grocery stores here. If you have ever shopped at the Taj - Ma - Teeter on Friendly Avenue in Greensboro, you will know what I am missing. And the blue laws in Colorado are such that I can't even buy wine in the grocery stores I do shop in!!!
This morning I had to go into town (Boulder). While there, I visited the newly rennovated Whole Foods store on Pearl Street. I am gluten intolerant (the stuff I need), and Whole Foods has loads of GF products, and they are all extremely yummy. They are a bit pricey, but since time is money, and since I don't have time to do as much baking as I would like, today I spent my money instead. The Whole Foods products are worth it.
I also bought all the items I have not been able to find in the Safeway or the King Soopers (the stuff I want). Such as: really good salsa and very thin, crispy tortilla chips, some beautiful fresh basil, two gorgeous swordfish steaks, some Szechuan peppercorns (I have a recipe for a smoked chicken that uses these, which absolutely cannot be made without them), and some gluten free baked goods. I know I could have gotten some of these items in a farmers' market, but it is only open one day of the week, and today wasn't that day. And it is not open in the winter months.
Speaking of open air markets, I dream of the ones I shopped at in France in 2006. Never in my life have I been so overwhelmed by the choices. I like food, can you tell? But I digress.
Whole Foods has a dedicated gluten free bakery in Durham, NC. They make these:
Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcakes! They also make chocolate ones!I also found this from a local Denver bakery, Udi's:
Gluten Free White Bread!I grilled the swordfish for dinner. I served it with a chimmichuri sauce made from the fresh basil. It was delicious. I think I will have a cupcake for dessert.
Not all corporations are "corporation-y." The one run by John Mackey is one of the best ones I know. Whole Foods gives its customers choices - lots of them. It doesn't force you to buy the $15.00 a pound swordfish. But it offers it to you if you want it. It doesn't make you buy their house brand of canned artichoke hearts, but it sits on the shelf if you want it. It doesn't tell you that you need its goat cheese, fresh spinach, locally grown yams, fresh anchovies, grass-fed beef, warm baguettes, Indian breads, fresh pizza dough, or gluten free cupcakes. But they are all right there if you want them, and are willing to pay the price.
Today, I was, and I did. Tomorrow I might need to go to Costco for my paper towels and my olive oil. But it's my choice. And I'm glad I can still make it.
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1 comment:
Janet,
Health care is no more a right than having food to eat. However, the way it works in our society, it cannot continue going. Health care is simply too expensive due to some factors which have nothing to do with quality of care and have everything to do with self serving interests of lawyers, pharmaceutical industry, insurance industry, and even some doctors. We are also THE ONLY developed country in the world with no guaranteed healthcare for all. Hard to imagine that everyone else is doing it wrong, and we are the only ones who are doing it right, especially considering that we have much worse outcomes of treatment, lower life expectancy, etc than people in Germany and France. Germany does not have a government plan, I believe, but they mandate that everyone is covered. We could do the same if we applied the principle which applies to auto insurance: you can't drive a car unless you have car insurance. So why can't it be equally mandatory to carry health insurance? Beats me.
Using the grocery store/restaurant analogy, the way the system works now is like this: responsible people are supposed to pay to have access to supposedly great food from great grocery stores and restaurants. Some people choose to go without paying, or simply can't afford it. So when they get really hungry, they have the right to walk into the most expensive restaurant (ER), eat all they want, and leave the rest of the public to foot the bill. Note that they are not allowed to play the same trick at an inexpensive grocery store. Right now the system encourages the "restaurant owner" to cook from the most expensive ingredients. The chefs are also allowed to force the clients to purchase those most expensive meals. This is not capitalism, this is lunacy. Why should an anesthesiologist be paid 3 times as much as an internist? Only because he learned to insert IV and epidural lines and watch the machines monitoring the patient's breathing/heart rate without falling asleep during the surgery? Whereas an internist must actually know a lot and be able to apply clinical skills without using unnecessary tests. The industry pays for tests and procedures, not for brain power (= the most expensive ingredients rather than good recipes and cooking skills). That is the more you overutilize the tests and procedures (most heart caths are totally unnecessary and even detrimental to your health, but will your cardiologist tell this to you?), the more the person who does those procedures gets paid. If the government can stop that cycle, more power to them! I certainly do not see any of the other players in the health care nightmare we call our health care system be able to self regulate.
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