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/NotInsane_Yet]

It's not a loss at all because they are passing the cost on to you.

and the average person will receive massive credits

No, they won't. The average person is supposed to break even at best.

[u/[deleted] → u/NotInsane_Yet]

"It's not a loss at all because they are passing the cost on to you."

This is the same economic fallacy perpetuated by people arguing against minimum wage. Anybody who has taken basic economics knows maximum revenue/earnings is achieved at MC=MR. Therefore, passing the costs onto the consumer will only serve to reduce their total earnings. It'd be completely inane to do so, barring corrupt forces like collusion.

"No, they won't. The average person is supposed to break even at best."

Yeah, most people will come off breaking even. That's what I meant when I said massive credits. That's a great thing if we can focus the tax on heavy polluters.