Whole Foods and Health Care: A Battle for Our Health

As we see, in the grand scheme of things there are many out to offer the best solution in regards to assistance in our personal health care. With different options proposed for our health care, we have the choice for responsibility or dependence on an outside entity, with other possibilities in between. Which is the wisest? This is up to each fellow human to decide, with his or her own best interests considered, for both themselves and for humanity.

Below is a short article and a video showing what Whole Foods and labors unions along with left-wing activists are going through as they bring their own opinions to share. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey argues that we should rely more on our own "individual empowerment" for our healthcare responsibilities, while the labors unions and activists are trying to boycott Whole Foods, stating that the solutions Mackey is offering are not attainable and pose issues for employee:

In August, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey argued in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that the solution to America's health care crisis was to be found in "less government control and more individual empowerment." His own company's unique health care plan, Mackey wrote, covers 90 percent of employees, costs less than health insurance plans, and provides a "very high degree of worker satisfaction." But for the sin of not supporting a government take over of health care, labor unions and left-wing activists called for a boycott of Whole Foods, claiming that Mackey's solutions were unworkable and his employees were unhappy.

Reason.tv talked to protesters, Mackey, and employees about "the Whole Foods alternative to ObamaCare":

The Success and Failure of Ayn Rand: The Popular Appeal of Her Literature and Philosophy

In contrast to the perspective of Shikha Dalmia in regards to the legacy of Ayn Rand, Joshua Zader makes the case for the popular appeal of Rand's books beyond the ranks of self-described Objectivists. From Reason.tv:

Joshua Zader's intellectual relationship with Ayn Rand began as it does for so many, during his college years. He then blazed a trail uniquely his own among Rand admirers by creating The Atlasphere—an online networking and dating site for the fans of Rand's novels with particular emphasis on The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Zader found inspiration in Rand's portrayals of independence and integrity, saying: "Rand's ethical vision was really one where we want to create a win-win world for everybody, and that there shouldn't be conflicts of interest among rational people if you're using an ethical system where everybody is treated as an end in himself." Zader has seen the real life impact of Rand's ideas through his work on The Atlasphere, which currently boasts over 19,000 members.

Zader discusses the some finer points of Rand's thought and novels, her supporters, her detractors, and her continuing impact. As a student of Buddhism, Zader explores how her ideas relate to what may seem like a conflicting view of the world. Zader: "Sometimes I see Buddhism as a set of practices in search of a philosophy, in an analogous way that Objectivism could be seen as a philosophy in search of a set of practices."

Fading Print: How We Will Survive Without Newspapers

In the November 09 issue of Reason Magazine, contributing editor Greg Beato discusses the relative worth of print media (particularly the flailing newspaper industry) in an era of digital globalization and individual empowerment:

To save what’s left of the newspaper industry, serial entrepreneur Steve Brill has launched a new startup, Journalism Online, which will help news organizations charge for their digital content. So far he has convinced at least 506 people in America that this is a terrific idea. They’re all publishers who have agreed to participate in the venture, but you have to start somewhere, right?

In related news, the Associated Press says it’s on the verge of creating articles that can perform investigative journalism even after they’ve been filed—a “tracking beacon” embedded in these stories will alert the A.P. when websites quote them without authorization. Meanwhile, Dan Rather thinks we should add “editor in chief” to the growing list of Barack Obama’s duties. “I want the president to convene a nonpartisan, blue-ribbon commission to assess the state of the news as an institution and an industry and to make recommendations for improving and stabilizing both,” the former CBS anchorman said in an August Washington Post op-ed. “This is a crisis that, with no exaggeration, threatens our democratic republic at its core.”

Do you want to know the really bad news? Despite all the layoffs, buy-outs, and shutdowns that have afflicted the newspaper industry in the last year, there are still 46,700 newsroom employees working at the nation’s 1,411 dailies, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ 2009 census. That means we’ve still got years of alarmist op-ed pieces, Hail Mary revenue schemes, and Hail Congress calls for subsidies and rule changes before every last school board meeting in America goes unmonitored and we descend into chaos, corruption, and life without paid classified ads.

Beato concludes:

Oh, for the days when the free and independent press was a little more circumscribed! That, in the end, is the theme that has always underscored the case for newspapers in the Web era, even when they weren’t on their deathbeds yet: We need them to protect us from how free and independent public discourse has become! But we don’t. Journalism may be in flux right now, but the long-term trend is toward more transparency, more news, a better-informed citizenry. We’re entering a new Light Ages, and when the last newspaper dies, thousands of sources will be rushing to break the sad news first. One of them might even be Dan Rather. His HDNet series Dan Rather Reports has a Twitter account, and one of his staffers posts to it regularly.

Read the full article here.

As you may know, at Derusha Publishing we are interested in making our content as freely available and accessible as technology (and each of our individual author's wishes) will allow. Our goal is to spread information, not monopolize it. Whether or not our colleagues in the media industry are "on the same page," we agree with Beato and believe that this the future of publishing.