#135 - Has Walmart Been Good For America?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2017

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Walmart has long been a target for critics of corporate expansion, but does the company really deserve the scrutiny? Some say that the big-box retailer devastates small communities by pushing out locally-owned businesses, mistreats its workers through low pay and restrictive work hours, and forces American companies to use cheap foreign labor to produce goods at low cost. Others point to the fact that Walmart provides countless jobs to low-skilled American workers, sells affordable goods, has increasingly become a leader in sustainability, and attracts new consumers and businesses to its neighborhoods. Has Walmart been good for America? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why do a debate on Walmart?
0:04.4	Why put a store in the same league as other topics we've debated like Obamacare and Immigration
0:09.6	and Russia and Syria and Trump and religion?
0:12.7	Because Walmart is much more than a store.
0:16.0	It is America's biggest company in terms of revenue.
0:19.0	It is the nation's biggest employer outside of the federal government.
0:23.2	Walmart has reconfigured communities, epitomized globalism, and been recognized as a force
0:28.4	either that creates work or destroys work.
0:32.6	Why debate Walmart?
0:34.0	Because there is so much to argue about.
0:36.2	So let's do it.
0:37.5	Yes or no to this statement, Long Live Walmart, a debate from Intelligent Squared US.
0:43.2	I'm John Donovan.
0:44.2	We are at the Kaufman Music Center in New York City.
0:47.0	Our debate will go in three rounds and then our audience here in New York will vote to choose
0:51.5	the winner and only one side wins.
0:54.9	Let's meet first the team arguing for the motion.
0:57.5	Ladies and gentlemen, welcome John Tierney.
1:00.4	Hi John.
1:04.5	You are a contributing editor to City Journal.
1:08.4	You're contributing columnist at the New York Times.
1:11.4	A known contrarian writing articles that have titles such as recycling is garbage.
	...

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