Bisquera 1

Peyton Bisquera

Ms. Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 1010, Section 3

14 April 2022

Interview

My English 2010 semester topic is the moral responsibility of billionaires and major

corporations to society. To receive an outside, professional perspective, for a research paper

pertaining to my topic; I conducted a personal interview with Shuan Stevenett. Stevenett is an

entrepreneur - a founder of the company Acima (recently sold to Rent-a-Center for billions of

dollars), and on the Jordan Education Foundation’s board of directors. This interview took place

on April 2, 2022, around 2 pm and lasted just over an hour. I collected answers and information

by voice recording the interview and taking short, quick notes. The following will be a

recollection of the information I collected from Stevenett.

I followed a rough guideline of about 10 initial questions. From those questions, I

followed up on Stevenett’s answers to inquire about a more in-depth understanding, as well as, a

further communication of his knowledge pertaining to the topic. My questions followed the

models: do monopolies exist in America's economy, do businesses and individuals with vast

amounts of wealth get regulated adequately by the government, should billionaires’ tax brackets

increase, is the usage of social media in companies optional, does the public eye affect

corporations actions and responsibilities, and does the government have any power or regulation

over them?

While my topic consists highly of conjecture, many of the following responses will be

opinionated. Stevenett is of the opinion that monopolies do not exist in our economy today. He

states that “Few companies dominate the market short term, but nobody is immune to new ideas
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and rivaling products of their own; Blockbuster and Kodak were thought to dominate the market

forever and they too went out of business.” While the struggle for the center of public focus

demise always seems to come. Stevenett contemplates where the “line” is between regulation

from the government on large corporations. He believes that taxing one socioeconomic group

more heavily than another is unfair, everyone should pay the same flat percentage of what they

owe. This comes to the conclusion that “No further intervention is required on the part of the

government.” Stevenett proclaims that under the current Biden administration billionaires are

paying more taxes than anyone in history.

Large corporations can prevent smaller businesses from succeeding due to their vast

amounts of wealth, they are able to have access to better resources for research and technology

than smaller companies of the same idea. For example, the company Tile created small tracking

devices that could be placed on essential objects to assist in finding the object that was misplaced

or lost. However, when Apple came out with the Airtag the company Tile lost popularity, and

credibility, and is now close to obsolescence. Stevenett urges the importance of having an idea

that is patentable and patenting the product as soon as possible to avoid the idea being stolen by a

larger, more developed company.

While large corporations have the resources to take ideas, they also must follow a strict

line of moral conduct within the public spectacle. Consumers may not have a direct say in the

company’s involvement, and moral, or ethical behaviors, the mass public opinon will ultimately

drive a company's stock up or down. Corporations have ultimately no choice whether they listen

to consumers or not.

Stevenett believes that it is important to support small and local businesses. He especially

enjoys seeing when “people [come] to America and [start] a business, and I think it’s so cool to

hear people’s stories and support their businesses.” He believes that business is more about the
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people, rather than the drive and stock of a company. Stevenett advocates that America is the

perfect country to be able to start your own commerce and have complete economic opportunity.

Stevenett is the creator of the business Acima and believes that he “Couldn’t have started a

business if [he] wasn’t in America, I don’t think anyone I know could either. It’s because of the

constitution that we have the rights and freedoms to sustain our ideas and companies.” There are

corporations that have existed for hundreds of years, Rockefeller was worth more than Elon

Musk is worth today, showing the American economy has always been set up for these kinds of

businesses. Ultimately, the free market allows for the opportunity for the rise and fall of

corporations; and that freedom, is the mantra of the United States of America.