Co-founder, CEO, and self-described libertarian John Mackey says the federal government is waging a “regulatory war against corporations” in America that is stifling business and robbing from profits.

“I feel like there’s almost a regulatory war against corporations right now,” Mackey said to ReasonTV’s Nick Gillespie (at the 8:40 mark). “The number of regulators attacking Whole Foods right now is unprecedented in our entire history.” 

“Honestly, it’s risky for me to even talk about it because I don’t want additional regulatory harassment that cost our company tens of millions of dollars,” he added. “I’ve talked to other CEOs; this is not just a Whole Foods problem. They’re all feeling the squeeze on regulatory agencies harassing them.”

One example of a useless regulation which  Mackey shared has to do with an ingredient in multivitamins sold at his stores. A few micrograms of selenium, a trace mineral, is present in the dietary supplements and because of that, Whole Foods can’t dispose of the pills at a landfill after they're returned to the store. That’s because the Environmental Protection Agency has classified selenium as a toxic substance:

“Well, that sets up a whole toxic waste disposal system for vitamins that people are eating. Okay? I would say that seems like kind of a nonsensical regulation.”

He continued: “But there’s all types of employment regulations. It’s increasingly difficult in the United States to be able to terminate anyone, particularly anyone that’s in a protected class. The amount of paperwork that you have to track. And even then, you’re probably still going to get sued and very likely you’re going to lose or have to settle.”

When recently speaking to Opportunity Lives, Mackey described his younger self as leaning towards socialism. It wasn’t until he started his business that he realized capitalism was the only way to go:

“Socialism always fails because it doesn’t have good incentive systems. It doesn’t work well with the reality of people ever finding themselves. It sounds good in theory. People will take care of each other, and no one will suffer, and everyone will have health-care, everybody will have free education and it sounds very good. In theory. But in reality it never works. It never has worked. And I believe it never will work.”

Mackey has written a book, Conscious Capitalist, and tries to live in a way that benefits others but in a way that is still realistic.

“I want to make the world a better place. But you have to do that in a sort of pragmatic fashion. Not a utopian transformation,” he said. 

Socialism’s myth, Mackey adds, is the belief that human nature's selfishness can be cured, and once it is, greed falls away. Yet, socialist nations only create extreme poverty. It's in capitalistic economies where all people are wealthier. 

“Socialism has failed miserably every place it has been tried,” Mackey says.