Not Invested

Slightly but not totally related .. remember when I had that call centre job where I had to phone up mutual fund shareholders and ask them to vote on proposals pertaining to their investments?

I still can't get over how many people got absolutely livid with me for calling and bothering them to actually give them some sort of say in what was done with their own invested money. *sigh*

Meanwhile... you keep your cash in a tin can in the back yard? Cause even storing it in that savings|checkings account places it in a place where "evil" accesses it.

My advice: get over it, put your money where it serves *you* best and fight you're good vs evil fight on different terrain.

With all do respect Chad, I disagree. Choosing to do the wrong thing out of either convenience or apathy only to do the Right thing when you have the time is like digging a foundation by night, while dumping soil into the hole by day. Nothing will ever get done and all the bad parts of the world will persist.

If you want to change the world, you first have to stop working against yourself.

You're right about the bank though. I'm currently with CIBC but have been considering a switch to VanCity Credit Union, though I'm unsure as to how "less-evil" they may be. Do you, or anyone have some more info in that column?

I feel my advice was misinterpreted. I probably should have been explicit... I'm not saying to go invest in those products or companies which you disagree with. Instead, just put that money where it's safe and serves you best. For myself, I'm in agreement with you. Capitalism == bad, let's just leave that there and put those loonies in a GIC for now.

I've been tempted by Vancity as well, don't know much on that topic though.

Nice post you linked me to... but is it really entirely up to the consumer to change the world? Does the consumer have the heart to? Does the consumer have the money to? Does the consumer even care? Sure you could wish we lived in a time and a place where all those around us had the same conscience as you and I; but we're humans and we are not all the same. And us humans like our stuff, and with more money we can have more stuff.

Here we go ...

A classic example is the price of gasoline. I suppose you could use the argument to say the rich oil companies are raking in billions (probably more). True enough, no debate there. What's sad is the demonstration and outcry from the general public (us consumers). Each one of us have developed habits and expectations; habits and expectations that are very hard to break. Even at the significant financial cost, many of us will not change our habits but would rather complain about our new problems.

It's habits like those that need to change. Why, when it's the habit of the consumer, should we expect no other than the consumer to change that habit? Consumers generally don't like change. So how do we push that change? Raise prices? Hell no, that would be capitalism wouldn't it? ;)

i remember reading an article about ethical investing little while back...you should look into it. it does exist
and the author seemed to believe it was possible

Actually, the package I was looking at was what they referred to as an ethical investment plan. One of them, called "London Life Ethics" included Suncor and a series of Canadian banks as acceptable targets -- far from ethical... at least in my book.

I'm going to keep looking, but I have my doubts that I'll ever be able to find an appropriate partner for something like this.

buy canada savings bonds! :)

There is a co-operative bank here that claims to have a strict ethics policy that affects where money is being used and which companies they choose to do business with. i don'[t know what the real practical fallout of this is, but i've never heard another financial insitution make a similar claim.

While I agree with you, I was hoping to be able to help some companies do the Right Thing as well. I dunno, is it crazy to think that I should be able to put 70% of my cash into a Canada Savings Bond and 30% into high-risk, pro-environment stuff? Like a German wind turbine company or a wavepower corporation?

maybe the problem is that alot of the really good guys aren't big enough to be publicly traded?

Actually, the problem is even deeper than that. By law, publicly traded companies have to place profit above all else including things like human decency, morality, the environment, the longevity of the species etc. In other words, even if a "good" company were to be big enough to be publicly traded, it wouldn't be "good" for very long.