Bernie Marcus, who along with his business partner Arthur Blank built Home Depot into a giant financial success, slammed Americans who don’t want to work.
Marcus, whom Bloomberg estimates has a net worth of $5.25 billion but has, with his wife, donated over $2 billion to over 500 organizations through their Marcus Foundation, spoke in an interview with Financial Times.
“I’m worried about capitalism,” Marcus stated. “Capitalism is the basis of Home Depot [and] millions of people have earned this success and had success. I’m talking manufacturers, vendors and distributors and people that work for us [who have been] able to enrich themselves by the journey of Home Depot. That’s the success. That’s why capitalism works.”
Marcus continued that thanks to “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.’”
Marcus wasn’t worried about any criticism he might elicit about his comments, especially from those he termed “woke.” He declared, “We used to have free speech here. We don’t have it. The woke people have taken over the world. You know, I imagine today they can’t attack me. I’m 93. Who gives a crap about Bernie Marcus?”
Marcus reserved much of his harsh criticism for those who have reached great wealth but then sit on their money, “Too timid to jump in, these are people who took great risks in whatever they did, but they’re afraid to take this risk [to get] into the charitable world and help other people. Why, I don’t know,” he said.
Some of the recipients of the Marcuses’ largesse include the construction of the Georgia Aquarium, for which they gave $250 million, millions for an autistic center in Atlanta, and research into autism, cancer, stroke, and veterans’ PTSD.
Marcus, who has supported former President Trump and donated to both Trump and Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, called President Biden “the worst president in the history of this country.” He called Trump’s policies “spot on,” but added, “It’s going to be very interesting in ‘24 because I think that DeSantis will challenge him. And may the better man win.”
After his 90th birthday, hearing that critics were targeting him for supporting Trump, Marcus fired back on Facebook, “In the next ten years, God willing, I will accomplish more to save this world than my critics will do even if they had forty lifetimes.”