Home Depot's 93-year-old cofounder who said 'nobody works' anymore because of 'socialism'

[pstokely]

https://www.businessinsider.com/home-depot-cofounder-nobody-works-donated-64-million-gop-trump-2022-12

A billionaire cofounder of Home Depot who said "nobody works" has donated nearly $64 million to political causes over the years, including the campaigns of former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Sen. John McCain, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.

In an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday, 93-year-old Bernie Marcus said "nobody works, nobody gives a damn," blaming the change on "socialism."

"'Just give it to me. Send me money. I don't want to work — I'm too lazy, I'm too fat, I'm too stupid,'" he said, adding that he thinks if he founded Home Depot today it may not have been as successful.

Home Depot today is worth $321 billion and has around 2,300 stores in North America. As for the current US unemployment rate, it's at 3.7%, the lowest in decades, despite the hiring challenges some businesses are still experiencing.

[David__77]

1. Socialism is good.

….

[JI7]

2. No, it's not . And there is no socialism in this country .

[Sky Jewels]

3. Socialism is a lot better than the predatory capitalism/oligarchy

we’re stuck with. Many other countries have much healthier, happier populations and they don’t go broke from medical bills or get saddled with lifelong debt because they want to get a higher education degree.

[JI7]

5. No, because people from socialist countries risk their lives to come to this country

While you don't see the people who claim this is the worst doing the same and going to other places even though they can easily go legally there.

[dpibel]

9. Which socialist countries might that be?

I think I know what you will say.

I think that will provide a chuckle.

[JI7]

10. Cuba, Venezuela

[dpibel]

11. Yup. That's an expected LOL. Thanks!

[JI7]

12. Which socialist countries do you prefer ?

[dpibel]

13. Oh, my friend. So silly.

For starters, what percentage of people coming to, or trying to come to, the US are coming from Cuba or Venezuela?

The bulk of the terrifying migrant horde at the southern border is from Mexico and Central America. Which of those countries do you imagine is socialist?

As for countries that have something like democratic socialism (the Scandinavian countries, for instance) those are actually not countries to which one can easily flee.

But, essentially, your message is this: "If you don't think America is the greatest of all time, why don't you go to Cuba or Venezuela."

If you cannot see how that is a less than convincing argument, I cannot help you with your debate skills.

[JI7]

14. Scandinavian countnries are not socialist .

And I didn't say America is the greatest of all time.

I said the fact is people from socialist countries which are cuba and venezuela risk their lives to go somewhere else.

And there are no Scandinavian countries which are socialist . They are actually Capitalist .

[dpibel]

17. You go, champ! A song for you:

[dpibel]

18. BTW

Are you pretty for sure certain that Cuba and Venezuela are socialist?

You might want to double check that.

[JI7]

19. They sure are compared to the Captalist Scandinavian Countries.

[dpibel]

20. Doesn't really answer the question, does it?

You said they were awful socialist countries.

Can you see that is different from "More socialist than Scandinavian countries"?

At this point, I'm betting you can't.

[JI7]

21. Yes it does answer the question . No system is 100 percent pure/perfect . But if you want to talk

about socialist countries yes, Cuba and Venezuela ARE socialist more than capitalist . And Scandinavian countries are capitalist.

[dpibel]

22. I would ask you if you knew how much you are

embarrassing yourself.

But I know the answer would be, "No! I don't!"

And that is so sad.

So I won't ask.

[JI7]

23. Embarrassing is trying to pass of Scandinavian Countries as Socialist

while denying Cuba and Venezuela are .

[JI7]

25. What is missing is the socialism in Scandinavian Countries .

[Celerity]

27. We (I live in Sweden) are not socialist, democratic or otherwise. We have an extremely vibrant

capitalist private sector, which is much more well regulated than the US,and yet is more productive on a number of measures, such as productivity per actual hour worked.

The Swedish capitalist private sector works synergistically with our expansive (FAR more than the US) welfare state (folkhemmet) to provide one of the highest qualities of life on the planet. The same goes for our Nordic neighbours (Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland).

It is called The Nordic Model, or Nordic social democracy. I belong to the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna), the largest single party in Sweden, but currently out of power(barely) in the Riksdag (our Parliament) due to the last election a few months back.

The actual Socialist and/or Communist parties (they are currently in the same party, Vänsterpartiet ie The Left Party for the most part, but there have been dozens of permutations over the years) here have never been officially in the Government, although do, from time to time, engage in a confidence and supply scheme with the Social Democrats and our allies.

There has always been a bit of a historical animosity between the Social Democrats and the actual socialist and communist parties, sometimes resulting in some real argy bargy.

[GoneOffShore]

15. I don't usually do memes, but this is for you

[sakabatou]

4. "Nobody works anymore" because of shitty management and pay

[JI7]

6. "gig jobs" are preferable to many minimum wage type of jobs these days

While the gig job may not be enough people have figured out they can make more money in a shorter amount of time compared to those other jobs. So what needs to happen is the others need to raise pay and benefits .

[Yavin4]

7. This. 100000x. This.

With gig jobs, you set your own hours. You can take a sick day off. Or, you can work non-stop. There's no boss. No uniform. No cleaning of public bathrooms.

Home Depot is in direct competition with Uber, Lyft, and Grubhub.

[dutch777]

8. Only surprised he didn't call for a return to legal slavery

But at 93, he better get all his goofy ideas out there before it's too late.

[Mr. Scorpio]

16. He needs to go out to pasture

[PlanetBev]

26. This is all he can think about at 93?

If I live another 21 years, I’ll be that age.

Seems to me, as the footsteps of mortality are coming down the hall, Mr. Marcus should be more concerned about whether his lasting legacy will be that of a greedy bastard.

[oioioi]

28. no fool like an old fool

fucking idiot.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

29. Nobody works anymore?

Huh. Then why were there people to check me out at the grocery store earlier today? Or those who filled a prescription yesterday?

Nobody works? Ummm. he's missing something.

[NJCher]

30. This is why

I will not set foot in Home Depot. I have 2-3000 to spend on a new refrigerator and Hell Depot is not even considered as a source.

[Joe Cool]

31. The guy is an idiot.

He is another example like Trump and Musk that being rich doesn’t mean that you are a genius it only means that you are rich.

[Samrob]

32. Like accepting millions in donations for killing democracy is work?

Name me an actual "job" held by top GOP in the last 50 years.

[Jim__]

33. "Nobody works anymore" - I wonder how his stores get stocked.

He must do it all himself.

[Hortensis]

39. WHO buys all that home improvement and construction stock?

Sounds like a standard-issue partisan complainer. A dime a dozen wherever you are.

Lol, I'd love to lock him in a closet with one of his wealthy-hating mirror images and let them go to.

[Johonny]

40. To be fair

He probably rarely goes anywhere but his mansion and his social club. He likely hasn't stepped foot in one of his stores or the real world in decades. All he knows is what Sean Hannity tells him.

I think it is safe to say, he probably has zero understanding of the state if the current economy.

[TheBlackAdder]

34. I wonder how much State & Urban Enterprise money, tax concessions and land grants they got.

[Emile]

35. Blame some non existent bullshit to cover up piss poor management!

[GreenWave]

36. How about no Home Depot has high quality products anymore due to greedy owner?

[Vinca]

37. When he dies I hope they tell us where he's buried so we can expel some of our socialist

pee on his grave.

[Kid Berwyn]

38. Want more workers? Try raising pay.

US Greedheads have been sore pissed since the Emancipation Proclamation.

[ProfessorGAC]

41. Dolt!

From Statista:

In November 2022, about 158.47 million people were employed in the United States.Dec 6, 2022

And, roughly 80 million of our population are kids.and there are 56 million retirees.
Also, there are around 15 million farm workers, both employees or owner operators.
This adds up to 310 million, and there are always voluntarily unemployed people whose resources permit it. (My wife is one of them, retiring after 30 post college years.)
This guy is a moron.