Great stuff from Home Depot Founder Bernie Marcus

Former Home Depot CEO Makes Sound Anti-Obama Argument


Bert Atkinson Jr. October 23, 2012 (a blogger)

Obama’s ideas of generating wealth, prosperity, and peace are out of line with how the private-sector works and he opens himself up to silly arguments as a result. As Romney has stated so poignantly in the debates, the idea of trickle down government doesn’t work.

Bernie Marcus’s point here in this video is that Barack Obama does not have a great idea of how a business works; he has worked either in government office or for a government funded entity his entire career. He didn’t sweep the floors and clean bathrooms in 1985 for the minimum wage of $3.35 an hour. He hasn’t waited tables and had the entirety of his income depend on not only his personal performance, but also the ability of a restaurant to attract patrons. He hasn’t worked in a small business production line preparing items to ship as quickly as possible in time for the UPS man’s late afternoon pickup in order to produce the revenue needed to even have the ability to turn the lights on the next day or make payroll. And he hasn’t managed a crew of people that depend on his guidance in a struggling business. It’s not speculation – he has not involved himself in business on a day to day basis. Ever.

I’m not criticizing Barack Obama the man, the father, or the husband, because I actually think he’d be a fairly cool guy to hang out with as long as we didn’t discuss politics or the economy. But I am saying it is impossible for him to know that much about business. If I wanted to know about how to play football, I would not go to the NFL’s corporate office and find some lifetime administrative employee to tell me about how to play the game; I would go to a coach or player that knows the game from the inside out. Similarly, if I wanted to know about business and jobs, I would not go to a lifetime government employee; I would go to a businessman that has seen the ups and downs, that has seen the mistakes, and has used his or her experiences, mistakes, and failures to find success.

If you believe that businesses create jobs, that the key to American prominence and prosperity lies in our individual and collective ability to innovate, and that personal responsibility, especially at home and in school, is key to harboring the skills necessary to find success, then vote for Romney, the man who has seen success at every level of business.

If you believe that government investments – that have traditionally been exacerbated by unparalleled levels of waste and oversight (see: welfare, free Obama-phones) due to the dilapidated budget establishment practices of governmental accounting and significant number of bureaucratic hurdles in place – will create jobs, prosperity, and success, then vote for Obama. Just don’t be upset when people, naturally driven by incentives, exploit the governmental system, costing taxpayers precious dollars and adding the heavy burden of debt to future generations to come.