azza1625/createdebate-arguments huggingface dataset:
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

When Wal-Mart comes to a new town, not only is it taking away jobs from the local stores and sometimes putting them out of business, but it is also affecting the suppliers of these stores. These are the farmers and packers supplying these stores. A quote from John Tyson of Tyson Foods “Walmart’s the problem,” he said. “They dictate the price to us, and we have no choice but to pay you less.” Tyson foods is a large company that can afford to charge lower prices for their product. They do not like the way that Wal-Mart treats them, but what are they to do when Wal-Mart accounts for 13.8% of their sales. What are the local farms to do? Wal-Mart cannot get their fresh crops from them, local suppliers cannot afford to follow what Wal-Mart is asking. So now that Wal-Mart has moved to a new town and the local stores are cutting back, the suppliers of these stores also have no way in recovering. Turning Wal-Mart into a monopoly that no one is able to compete with.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Is true that when walmart open a store a lot of local business closes, the reason for this is that no one can simple compete with walmart prices. Richard Moe said that walmart tends to suck the economy and social life out of small towns.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

The claim that Wal-Mart "disregards the concerns of local or small community businesses" can be contradicted by evidence. If Wal-Mart's stores were not in tune with concerns of shoppers in small towns, the stores would not make profit and would eventually have to shut down. The main reason local or small community businesses do not like Wal-Mart is because they do not want to deal with new competition. The absence of rigorous competition, however, leads to high prices in many small communities. Therefore, Wal-Mart creates competition which is good for the economy and also brings outside business to small town stores.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

I couldn't agree more with this statement. I read an article from kenoshanews.com that stated it takes away business from the smaller businesses and ultimately people lose their jobs.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

While I do agree with this statement and it is so very true. The Tyson example is true and a good idea to think about the suppliers. I have a real issue with Tyson itself however. Tyson should never complain about another business because they probably treat their employees/merchandise (chickens) worse than almost any other producer. In my environmental science class last year we watched a movie (trailer is below) in which it discusses all of the big food companies themselves. Maybe it isn't just Wal-Mart we should be discussing; maybe companies like Tyson should be looked at with a little more scrutiny. In the trailer (which the link is attached) the commentator says that every time we are swiping that product and purchasing it we are voting to support that company. Isn't that the same principle we should be looking at for Wal-Mart. If we completely despise and disagree with the company, then shouldn't we make the decision to stop purchasing their items shopping at their store and show the company that we no longer support them.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

I agree. As Walmart "creates job" they are really just taking jobs away from other businesses. Walmart has a huge work force because when people are desperate for work, they have no other choice but to work for the only business in the area thats doing well, which is usually the local Walmart Super center. As they continue to create high turnovers, smaller competing businesses will ultimately fail under Walmart's enormous strangle hold on the American economy. This creates a low income, low wage, poverty driven society
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

Wal-Mart is hurting the labor market and businesses near them. Their store openings kill three local jobs for every two they create. People and businesses close by are suffering because they are taking over. Local businesses keep more of their money in the community. When a Walmart moves in they take the towns business. Less of their revenue stays in the community so this really hurts local economies.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Walmart is well know for not treating it's female employees fairly. Hard statistics show that women employees work disproportionately in the lower wage positions and make less than men with the same position and responsibilities. They escaped a class action law suit, but will have to face smaller groups of women employees in sexual discrimination lawsuits over the next few years.source: http://www.walmartclass.com/staticdata/reports/r2.pdf
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: YES

This seems to be the case for nearly all businesses so it doesn't uniquely pertain to Walmart.http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQcc9FuSnjw-A7_huJO-CqTAm-nZs4iZx5-SHkV1fL_zdU_h2Arte-ZT6BFeQ
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

I agree with this statement, and would like to add that the majority of Walmart employees are also living in a state of poverty according to the standard of living. So, not only do they not treat women fairly, but they just don't treat their employees fairly as a whole.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

One of my good friends dad is a head manager of a walmart and has started up many other Walmarts. My friend has talked to employees of these Walmart's and they all seem pretty happy and her dad makes sure he treats his employees right. So I don't agree with saying all Walmart employees especially women get treated badly because I know first hand of a couple stores that the employees receive everything they are requred.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Have you seen any actual evidence to support this, or is your statement based on what your friend and the manager of the store have told you? And do you really think that the associates of these stores would have told the manager's daughter that they were dissatisfied with their job? http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/walmart/walmart_2_profiles.cfm
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

I agree with this statement. Walmart was dealing with a record-large class-action lawsuit that charges it with discriminating against women in pay and promotions. It was also said that the company "pays poverty-level wages, offers poor health-care benefits and gobbles up green space with its massive big-box stores". Of course Walmart denies all of these statements though.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

The facts clearly show that there are more jobs when Wal-Mart comes to town but when you take a look at the hours, wages, benefits and health care of these great economy boosting "jobs" the story becomes more bleak. There are a few people at the head of the Wal-Mart corporation making billions of dollars and treating their employees worse than most other employers with similar businesses. Wal-Mart employees are given no benefits or health care and are encouraged to look to the government for it. Wal-Mart has also taken major steps to keep their employees from creating unions and have gone to such extremes as closing departments (meat cutting) and stores that created unions. Instead of lining their pockets the leaders of Wal-Mart should treat their employees, that are responsible for making them rich, with respect by giving them proper benefits, wages, health care and hours.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Wal-Mart has low wages and poor labor standards for its employees, resulting in poverty for Wal-Mart's employees, and their families.I found some stats that prove this statement on http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/13/the-wal-mart-question "One half of Wal-Mart’s 720,000 U.S. employees qualify for federal assistance under the food stamp program. Only 40% of Wal-Mart workers can afford the health care plan that Wal-Mart offers. Unless the employee has a spouse with medical benefits, health care is usually paid for by the government"
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

Walmart creates about 100,000 jobs a year. Most of the people they hire are unemployed and are on some sort of federal health care. But after they join the company the percent of people on the federal health care decreases. So Walmart is trying to reduce the number of people that are on federal health care that taxpayers would otherwise pay for.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

I could not disagree more with this statement. Wal-Mart could care less about taxpayers. Every year, they find ways of avoiding tax payments of over $400 million dollars. Do you know how much that money could help tax payers? Maybe they're hiring unemployed workers because they know how desperate they are to find work and how little they can pay them.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Walmart’s employees, who are mostly women, dislike their hours, benefits, and wages. The average annual income of a full-time employee is around $14,000 which only allows few benefits for someone making such a small salary to obtain. It only seems natural that these workers would push for a better salary to receive better benefits. Walmart workers take home an average of $250 a week, according to a PBS report, and about 70 percent of these workers leave in the first year. One-third of the workers are part-time, so they are not eligible for benefits. The health-insurance package requires a 35 percent contribution-more than twice the national co-pay average-so more than half of those Walmart workers who are eligible can't afford it.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Let's face it - a family can't live on $14,000 a year - so no wonder 70% leave in the first year of employment.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

Who says that this one employee is supporting a family, and if so, that he/she is the lone supporter?
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

The hard truth is that although the wages are low and almost impossible for families to live on, some of the people at Wal-Mart just won't be able to get another job due to education and health problems. To these individuals Wal-Mart is great for giving them a chance to make some money, especially in this economy.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

I can agree with you on this but dont you think Walmart knows this and plays on the fact that some people will take the job because they cant do any better? Is this taking advantage of these people?
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

I don't think Walmart is taking advantage of these people. There is only so much money you can pay someone with little to no schooling...Walmart is offering hope to those who are less fortunate and finds a place to employ everyone no matter their circumstance.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Wal-Mart's business practices, successful as they may be, are neither supporting local growth in the United States, nor internationally. A recent development in the Wal-Mart's corporation is the interest in expanding to South Africa. Wal-Marts taking over the current Massmart corporation would destroy all local suppliers, because their supply chain, as we know, is bringing in international supplier goods. "Wal-Mart also offered a list of merger conditions that it told the tribunal it would be glad to comply with, including putting about $14 million into a "suppler development fund" to help South African producers learn how to become Wal-Mart suppliers. (The company is spending $2.4 billion to buy Massmart, which does about $7 billion in sales each year.)" Their response is to contribute a small portion of their fortune to "train" local suppliers on how to, and question being whether they will actually ever be contracted, as suppliers for Wal-Mart.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Employee treatment by Wal-Mart is extremely unfair. They cheat the system and allow their employees to suffer instead of following regulations. When employees are laid off they are supposed to collect substitute checks, Wal-Mart, however, once January comes around and it is time to lay off workers, makes these employees work night shift and cuts their hours back considerably forcing them to have to quit. http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-walmart-low-wages-unions/Content?oid=2043233
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Two major points of what makes Walmart not good for America is the fact it ignores the higher class working individuals and other competitors cannot simply keep up. Edna Bonacich, a professor of sociology at the University of California states; there's a kind of cyclical process of poorer workers needing cheaper goods, needing poorer workers to produce those goods, in a kind of ratcheting down of standards. What happens is that inequality is increasing in the United States. The middle class is kind of being hollowed out, and they're more and more workers who find that it's hard to earn a living wage. (PBS, 2004) Walmart creates inequity between the American people. It addresses the issues of the lower income families but does not target to higher class individuals. Advertising "lower costs" does not target to those individuals who are looking for quality and not looking so much for price. In regards to competitors being able to keep up with Walmart's strategy; is Walmart’s intention to drive all competitors out of business? I'd rather have numerous stores to shop at then one big convenience store. Walmart is making the American people lazy because they are taking away business from the uniqueness of the small business owners. It's not right and we should start supporting the American people who want to open their own individualized stores.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

I think that anyone who wants to open there own individual store has the right and opportunity to do so. You can not blame Wal-Mart for being so successful that they drive competitors out. Stores are always tring to find ways to be better than there competition and Wal-Mart has done that. Other stores can be opened and be profitable but they can't compete on price. They will have to be better in a different area of business to be viable against the competition.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

We have to look at why walmart has such low prices, their prices are so low because about 80% of walmart suppliers are based in China. Outsourcing jobs from the US will have an impact on the US unemployement rate, as more people are losing jobs because companies are shutting down or outsourcing to a lower costs country.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Walmart suddenly fell in love with the fact that they could have workers in China make Walmart’s products for low wages. In China, there are 320 million potential employees and buyers under the age of 14. Walmart gets to sell products that are made by cheap labor from China and China gets to inherit the jobs that use to belong to American workers. The unemployed and underemployed American workers get to buy cut-rate imported Chinese shirts, shoes, and electronics at an American Walmart. 70% of the products on its shelves come from China.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

I agree with this statement becuase a lot of businesses built warehouses around the Walmart headquarters so they could work better with the company. But when Walmart finds a cheaper deal in China, they quickly drop the companies they were working with, forcing companies to shut down and thousands of jobs are lost. So the economy suffers because Walmart just wants a cheaper deal.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Walmart isn't good for America and the small businesses it has put out of work. When a big corporation like Walmart moves into a small rural town it takes away the business and many local vendors are forced out of work. It's also pretty ridiculous that there are Walmart's within a half hour times distances from where you are. It's being extremely invasive.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

This is not Wal-Mart's fault. These small businesses need to improve their business plans to be able to compete with Wal-Mart. If they can't compete with price, these small businesses need to enhance in customer service, overall experience, or improvement of products.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

If you think about it, there is no way that a small business can compete with a Wal-Mart. A giant like Wal-Mart has the money and resources to be able to move and set up numerous stores. A small business or a "Mom and Pop" store simply doesn't have an opportunity or the resources to open up a few stores. To be quite honest there aren't many stores that would be able to do the some of the things Wal-Mart is able to do.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

“Mom and Pop” stores can compete with Wal-Mart, in the aspect of having superior customer service, higher quality products, and overall a better shopping experience with their store.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

Personally I could name a lot of small businesses that compete with Walmart and do just fine. The small businesses need to look at the five pillars of success that Maxine Clark refers to and decide which one of them they want to be. If they specialize in something then the can compete with Walmart. I drive by a small gas station near my house everyday multiple times. Since I do not pass any Walmart, I am completely fine with paying a little extra for milk and small groceries because of the convenience and the customer service I experience when I go in there. Also if larger businesses are more efficient and offer lower prices then maybe the days of "mom and pop" shops are over. Giant Eagle, Wegmans, and Tops can compete with Walmart, why can't small businesses?
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

"Mom and Pop" shops can compete with Wal-Mart, in some ways. These shops need to be the best in at least one of the "5 pillars of success." These shops have the opportunity to enhance the overall experience, customer service, and improving quality of products.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

Walmart moves into an area and employs hundreds of people. It is better for everyone in the area except the "small businesses" that are affected by it, which are obviously not that great if they can not stay in business and compete by finding a niche. What it comes down to is that the good outweighs the bad.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

This is exactly right. If you can't find a niche, then another retailer, whether it be Walmart or even another small retailer, will match or beat your price. We all know that price alone isn't going to work as a competitive advantage.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

The small businesses don't have the money that Walmart does. They need time to get going and get their business under way. Instead, Walmart just comes in and bully's these small businesses out and ruins families. It's not that they can't find a niche; it's the fact that these small businesses don't have the money to do anything.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

There are niches that do not need money to attain, such as great customer service. If you walk into a store greeted by a warming smile and great customer service then maybe you are willing to pay the extra money for products.A small company needs to find the weakness in their competitors strength. The small business could also use one of the five pillars of success that Maxine Clark talks about. Maybe they need to relocate to a more convenient spot or just do one thing and be better at that one thing than Walmart. Wamart sells clothes, but I certainly would rather shop at American Eagle for clothes then Walmart. In fact, In most cases if Walmart gave me free clothing, I wouldn't wear it. If a small business has nothing positive to offer and no competitive advantage, then ask yourself this, should they really still be there? Most businesses that are not the best at something fail. If Walmart does not take advantage of the situation then another company will move in, are they bad for America? I would hope the surrounding community would enjoy another option because they will be happier with their purchases. If they are really that attached to the owners of the small business that is ripping them off then they can donate the money they save at Walmart to the small business to keep it going. If there was a basketball player on a team and he had a certain amount of skill and a new player came onto the team and was better in EVERY category and you were the coach, who would you play? Who would the fans want you to play? Who would the other teammates want you to play? However, if the new person came onto the team and was better at every category except rebounding, and you were playing a team that out rebounds everyone, then ask those same questions. This is just like when a person goes shopping, they go to Walmart for everything, EXCEPT that one thing that they like to go to the small business for, which is rebounding in basketball but maybe its clothing or even more specific a certain clothing, a top, or maybe jeans that fit better then Walmart jeans, or maybe jeans that last longer. A small business can find a niche without money.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: yes

The reason that Wal-Mart is putting the local vendors out of business is because they are more effective than those other stores. The fact that most people live near a Wal-Mart is a strategy that has worked for them because it is so convenient for customers to get to one of there stores.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

Would you feel the same way if your family owned one of those little stores Wal-Mart is competing with and they are forced to close? I love going to Wal-Mart and not having to spend a ton of money, but I don't support what they do by any means. If Wal-Mart wasn't so readily available and those mom and pop shops were nearby, I would absolutely spend more money to buy something, but because Wal-Mart has come in and changed this, people no longer see it this way.
Debate: Is Wal-Mart Good For America?
Side: No

I agree and disagree with this statement. I disagree because the situation you are suggesting pretty much did happen to my family. It wasn't a store my parents owned and it wasn't Wal-Mart, but my dad did work for a company which decided cheaper labor was best for them. For a long time, I was mad and hated companies that did similar things, but being in business classes and realizing that it is not necessarily about the stakeholders rather those who own the business (shareholders) it makes sense. With that, going back to Wal-Mart, if mom and pop shops offered things even comparable, I would be there in a heartbeat. The truth of the fact is they don't. And by shopping at Wal-Mart, we are supporting the business; we may not believe in what they do, but by shopping at their stores, we completely support them.