The late comedian Mitch Hedberg, best known for his off-kilter observational non-sequiturs, once said this about America’s most successful big-box home-improvement store: “I went to the Home Depot, which was unnecessary. I need to go to the Apartment Depot. Which is just a big warehouse with a whole lot of people standing around saying, ‘We don’t have to fix anything.’”
I’m not sure if Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus has ever heard the joke, but he’d probably find it apropos. Because, to hear him tell it, if he were going to found a company today, he’d probably consider the Apartment Depot model.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Marcus, a longtime backer of Republicans and Republican causes, said he was “worried about capitalism” and blamed a slew of influences — including President Joe Biden and “the woke people” for creating a society where no one actually wants to do labor.
“Nobody works,” the 93-year-old Marcus said in an article published Thursday.
“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 said about current American attitudes.
“Nobody gives a damn.”
Marcus, who co-founded the Home Depot chain in Atlanta in the 1970s, said the current atmosphere has him worried about the future of the system that’s made us rich enough to make us think we can get by on being lazy, fat and stupid.
“I’m worried about capitalism,” Marcus said, per the Financial Times.
“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.”
As for who’s to blame, there’s a long list — and pretty much every one of them deserves some of the blame.
The Financial Times reported: “The list of potential obstacles to entrepreneurial success in the United States today is long, according to Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot: human resources executives, government bureaucrats, regulators, socialists, Harvard graduates, MBAs, Harvard MBAs, lawyers, accountants, Joe Biden, the media and ‘the woke people.’”
If Marcus and fellow co-founder Arthur Blank decided to start Home Depot in 2022 instead of 1979, “We would end up with 15, 16 stores. I don’t know that we could go further,” Marcus said.
Thankfully, there are enough smart, enterprising DIYers and hard-working, blue-collar employees to keep the company’s 2,300 stores afloat.
How long that lasts is anyone’s guess.
However, Marcus’ pessimism is warranted. Hedberg died in 2005, too early to witness generation Apartment Depot in full-flower.
Only 42 percent of millennials owned a home at age 30, according to Bloomberg, lower than previous generations. While two financial crises are part of the reason, keep in mind that millennials have put off other adult responsibilities until later in life, as well.
A 2020 Pew Research study found that only 44 percent of millennials between the ages of 23 and 38 were married — a stark change from every previous generation, in which a majority of people were married at those ages. Only about 30 percent were married with a child — again, lower than prior generations.
As a millennial myself, I’ve seen the attitude that causes this — and the lack of resolve to change it. Instead, we hear platitudes about “quiet quitting” and “self-care.”
If the trend continues, future Bernie Marcuses will only be able to rake in the cash by hoping our future skivers spend their universal basic income checks at Apartment Depot, where a bunch of people stand around, saying, “We don’t have to fix anything.”
Heck, serve some overpriced coffee, rename it “Starbucks,” and you’ve got a killer business model. For yourself, anyway. The rest of the country is thoroughly doomed if current trends persist.
If anything, Bernie Marcus is being too optimistic.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
