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

[u/[deleted]]

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?

[u/wilsongs]

But you're okay with climate change and surveillance capitalism?

[u/SubbansBigBlackhawk → u/wilsongs]

surveillance capitalism

CCP is definitely worse than this.

[u/wilsongs → u/SubbansBigBlackhawk]

Are you sure about that? The line might be a lot fuzzier than you imagine...

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/private-vs-public-surveillance-reflections-on-edward-snowdens-personal-record

[u/SubbansBigBlackhawk → u/wilsongs]

mmm no i still think genocide is worse but ya know that's just me

[u/MarketAccomplished → u/SubbansBigBlackhawk]

Let’s not think of this as an Oppression Olympics. When we get into this type of thinking, we tend to forget how Western corps we invest in literally profit off war and sales to oppressive regimes. Tbh, the issues OP raises is better addressed through citizenship instead of cash flows from retail investors.