The co-founder of the home improvement retail store Home Depot has recently given his opinion of the political leanings of our younger generations in America. The business leader claims they are ignoring the “bottom line” of the economy.
Bernie Marcus was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1929 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. He co-founded The Home Depot in 1978 with his business partner Arthur Blank. Marcus recently appeared on Fox News’ “Varney & Co.” where he addressed some of the issues we are seeing today.”
I certainly don’t want to see the woke generation coming up, especially the leaders. I’m watching Davos, what happened in Davos, and they’re recommending spending more money on climate control when we don’t have it. We’ve already overspent. And if anything, climate control has caused most of the problems we have today.”
Marcus’ assertion came soon after CEO of Blackstone Group Stephen Schwarzman called for new political leaders who had a blatant climate change agenda above all else.
“I think we need to move on. For both parties, it’s a next generation of leaders. I think it’s important that, particularly on the Republican side, we’ve had a series of four losses in a row,” Schwarzman said in an interview with Bloomberg in Davos. “I think the public has spoken and would like to see a change.”
However, Marcus did agree that bringing in a different generation tot he economy could be beneficial given the attitude and characteristics of the current generation.
“We need leaders who are basically thinking about the shareholders and their employees, and how well the shareholders are doing and their employees. And I think today it’s all about woke diversity, things that don’t hit the bottom line,” Marcus stated.
"*" indicates required fields
“I can tell you right now, after some meetings I had yesterday, you can’t hire people. They don’t want to work. Nobody wants to work anymore, especially office people,” Marcus claimed. “They want to work three days a week. It’s incredible. How do you have a recession when you have people that don’t want jobs?”
“They’re entitled, they’re given everything,” he said of the “woke” generation. “The government, in many cases, if you don’t work, you get as much money as when you did work… And so you get this laziness, which you have, and it’s basically a socialistic society.”
Marcus then explained that 70 percent of the American labor force is employed by small businesses. He also went on to state how these businesses will likely close due to economic conditions in the near future.
“Why are they not going to be able to make it? Number one, inflation. Number two, they can’t get people to work,” Marcus said. “Take a pizzeria shop: He can’t find anybody to work. He’s working 12, 14, 18 hours a day and he may not be able to make it.”
“Then you throw in all these absurd rules that you have to follow, and every state has some dumber and dumber [regulations],” Home Depot’s co-founder said of “woke” labor laws. “New York, in fact, leads the country in dumb, but maybe not, maybe they’re second to California.”
Bernie Marcus certainly has the credentials be diagnosing these problems in the American economy. His insights illustrate major dislocations between the economy, small businesses, and our younger generations.