Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Socially responsible investing - real life and a loaded question

I watched The Corporation at the Magic Theatre a while back, and found its argument convincing.
As a commenter put it in here:
...[There are disturbing] similarities...between the behavior of corporations (as psuedo persons) and sociopaths. I wonder if we have begun creating corporations to do all the immoral and uncaring things we want done in (at least) business life without having to take blame for them ourselves.


Upon recently finding myself with a chunk of money to invest, here's what went through my head:

  1. "which fund will give the highest return?"

  2. [light bulb goes on...] "oops, looks like i am part of the problem"

  3. "well yes i should look into socially responsible investing, but that takes time and energy - and could end up badly."
    and have a lower rate of return...

  4. maybe just this time i could pretend the whole social responsibility issue didn't occur to me? Surely Good Works in Realm A will outweigh my investments' evildoing in Realm B? (besides, i don't even *know* (nor want to know) that they're evildoing.)


Do we have a moral obligation to actively consider and evaluate how our investments are affecting the world, and to use our powers for good?

(to see our dollar as our vote, as others (Astyk?) put it)

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Confidential to everyone: yes, this one's ripe for parodying - but do it on your own blog, ok?
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous2/22/2007 4:50 AM

    Now you're being intellectually honest. Here's a thought: invest in a stock or mutual fund that gives the highest return and then give the money away to your favorite charity or cause. It's a "win win." Let me know how it works.
    JeffP

    ReplyDelete

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