Home Depot founder says rise of ‘socialism’ makes people too lazy for work. Is he right? | Opinion

Is our society getting fat and lazy? The co-founder of Home Depot thinks so.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Bernie Marcus says he wouldn’t be successful if he started his chain of home-improvement stores today.

“We would end up with 15, 16 stores,” Marcus said. “I don’t know that we could go further.”

Marcus says he’s worried about capitalism, which he called the “basis” of Home Depot. What does he blame for this. Laziness, even socialism.

“Nobody works. Nobody gives a damn. ‘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 says.

”Marcus sounds like a bit of a grumpy guy, but at 93 years old, the entrepreneur may have seen a few things and come by that opinion honestly.

A 2020 poll from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation showed that 40% of Americans have a favorable view of socialism. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez both pronounce socialist sentiments, and both have large, loyal followings.

Even more surprising is just how socialism has creeped its way into our culture of ideas. “The crash of 2008, rising inequality, and an intensifying critique of how contemporary capitalism works has brought socialism back into the mainstream,” write E. J. Dionne Jr. and William A. Galston of the Brookings Institution, a center-left think tank in Washington.

COVID-related stimulus monies and unemployment packages sent some people down the path of favoring handouts over working, as Marcus observed. In 2021, and perhaps still today, some industries were struggling to fill jobs. People cited robust unemployment checks, thanks to an added $300 under the American Rescue Act that discouraged people from re-entering the workforce.

A 2021 Wall Street Journal described the work-around this way: A family with two unemployed parents could double up on unemployment benefits, meaning $600 in weekly bonus payments, on top of normal benefits that average about $375 a week for each parent. Add in virtually free health insurance from ObamaCare expansions and free premiums for those who stay on their former employer’s plan, food stamps and $3,000-a-child payments.

On top of all that, recipients of government benefits don’t have to pay payroll taxes. People with jobs do.

With socialism, as in many political ideologies, there appears to be a significant gap between desire and reality, between utopia and real life.Gen Zers said in a recent poll they need a $171,000 per year salary to feel “financially healthy.”

So which one is it? Do they want to work and make $14,000 a month in gross income, more than triple what the median American worker brings home per year (which is $54,132)? Or do they want handouts?

This disconnect — embracing socialism as a socioeconomic good but realizing it actually prevents people from earning the kind of living they dream of — is one of the aspects schools, parents, and mentors should focus on when it comes to teaching children about money, politics, and how things work in America.

Socialism as a basis for government, has failed every time it’s been tried — and there’s good reason for that. With socialism as the foundation, an average person couldn’t make close to what Gen Z aspires to earn. Yet that generation continues to view socialism through rose-colored glasses. The irony of this escapes them.

America isn’t perfect, by any means, but here you can make $170,000 a year as an influencer, attorney, writer, or even in a high-paying blue collar gig such as a power plant operator. It’s the beauty of capitalism. The same capitalism Marcus says made Home Depot successful and the best antidote to the evils of socialism.

Socialism isn’t the right frame of government for any country, but especially not America. If we want to make sure our kids don’t find it appealing, we need to really teach them what it’s like, even if it means pointing out that they’d wind up a lot less rich than they want to be.