[via Reason: Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business: A Reason debate featuring Milton Friedman, Whole Foods%u2019 John Mackey, and Cypress Semiconductor%u2019s T.J. Rodgers]:

The business model that Whole Foods has embraced could represent a new form of capitalism, one that more consciously works for the common good instead of depending solely on the invisible hand to generate positive results for society. The brand of capitalism is in terrible shape throughout the world, and corporations are widely seen as selfish, greedy, and uncaring.This is both unfortunate and unnecessary, and could be changed if businesses and economists widely adopted the business model that I have outlined here.

This article, and particularly the way John Mackey describes his business philosophy reminds me of the idea behind the [l:http://interraproject.org|Interra Project] and some of the work that I am doing for Public Intelligence (Jim Hightower's organization).

It is a pretty good read, especially the part where Mackey responds to Rogers by pointing out:
Cypress Semiconductor has struggled to be profitable for many years now, and their balance sheet shows negative retained earnings of over $408 million. This means that in its entire 23-year history, Cypress has lost far more money for its investors than it has made.