Times Talk Thursday: “Making Companies Act When Government Won’t”

On Thursday, Sept. 26th,  another successful Times Talk Thursday took place in the Lane University Center Room 111. These events are held bi-monthly from 12:30 p.m.- 2:00 p.m. and invite students, faculty, and staff to come together and discuss one particular article from The New York Times. Every member of FSU’s campus has their very own subscription to The New York Times using their FSU email, allowing for easy access to each article. The article of choice is distributed to the campus community via email at some point in the week prior to the discussion. The articles are chosen by an individual who came to the Times Talk and then expressed interest in choosing the article for the next meeting. Food and beverages are also offered to those in attendance.

This week, in particular, the article up for discussion was “Making Companies Act When Government Won’t.” This article was an opinion piece focusing on what type of impact the American population has on corporate America, in terms of gun violence and global warming. Controversial topics such as these end up leading corporations to take on further action than what the law actually requires, simply because that is what the American people seem to prefer. After all, producers make all sorts of decisions to keep their consumers happy. These decisions rarely please everyone, but after a mass shooting took place at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, the entire corporation thought it best to cease selling handguns and ammunition for assault rifles in all of its stores that previously did so and to also ask those with concealed carry permits in open-carry states to keep their weapons out of its stores.

At the Times Talk, the individuals present discussed the impact of actions such as these on the American populous and whether or not companies like Walmart are motivated by profit or rather the desire to do good. This article was chosen by Dr. Suzanne McCoskey of the Economics Department.

The next Times Talk Thursday will be held on Thursday, Oct. 10th. These events are sponsored by The Office of Civic Engagement and the J Glenn Beall Institute for Public Affairs. Professor Tim Magrath and Mr. Patrick O’Brien are the representatives of these sponsorships at FSU.