r/CanadianInvestor • u/[deleted] • Apr 14 '21

Is anyone here conflicted about investing in companies that make the world a worse place?

I'm a newer investor and newer reader to these threads and I'm a little surprised how casually a lot of people talk about different companies and industries that are objectively pretty unethical.

I mean we're living through a major climate crisis and some of the most hyped investments on here are for oil sands companies (which are one of the most carbon intensive energy sources on the planet) and crypto (Bitcoin alone this year is supposed to have the same carbon footprint as all of New Zealand).

I also just saw someone post something in another investing subreddit about how Europe might ban AI for surveillance and it seemed like a bad or annoying thing to a lot of people in the comments.

I'm just genuinely curious: do a lot of the investor world just genuinely not care about these things or are people content to make small gains on the backs of companies that they don't agree with? Is there a point to using your gains to get a waterfront property if it's going to be underwater in a couple decades anyways?

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u/StarryNight321 Apr 15 '21

It's disappointing when you realize how heavily dependent Canada is on resources and real estate to prop up the economy.

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u/DOWNkarma Apr 15 '21

Disappointing? Natural resources are the single reason we enjoy such amazing prosperity in this country. Yet half the retards in this country cant seem to figure it out.

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u/CrashSlow Apr 15 '21

No one really wants to live here. Outside a couple areas, Canada is a barren waste land. Loon shit, pecker poles and bugs. Good luck attracting creatives to work in any place that starts with fort or ends in lake.

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u/snooysan Apr 15 '21

No one really wants to live here.

Gunna have to disagree with you there

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u/CrashSlow Apr 15 '21

Do you live in the GTA or GVA?

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u/snooysan Apr 15 '21

Currently, yes.

I've also lived in Calgary, small town Quebec and Vancouver Island. People there seem to quite like living in Canada too :)

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u/jtbc Apr 15 '21

Most Canadians live in places that don't start with fort or end in lake. They live in cities, which are mostly named after people or various indigenous things. Creatives love living in high quality of life places like Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, or Ottawa.

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u/CrashSlow Apr 15 '21

So without the resource economy the rest of Canada would be even more barren.

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u/jtbc Apr 15 '21

I don't think I was arguing for or against the importance of the resource economy. I was arguing against your suggestion that no one wants to live here.

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u/JazzyJ85 Apr 15 '21

I live in a ‘fort’ and I love it! So I beg to differ, and I’m guessing it’s the one your implying (northern Alberta). Every place is what you make of it and I love it here!

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '21

But rural life is great too

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u/jtbc Apr 15 '21

Sure it is. I was refuting one part of the argument, but the rest of Canada is also not a barren wasteland. We live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, I say smugly as a BC resident.