How ethical are your investments? And do you care?
I went to an adult education course recently on ethical eating. Considerable discussion revolved around the meaning of “ethical” – defined in my computer’s dictionary as “consistent with agreed principles of correct moral conduct.”
The instructor asked us to write down our priorities about our food choices, both now and in a perfect world.
Most of us wrote words like “healthy,” “fresh,” “tasty,” “local,” “convenient,” “affordable” and in a perfect world, also “not harming the environment,” “not cruel to animals,” “not genetically modified” and “fair to workers involved.”
If you had to write down your priorities about your investment choices, you would probably include words like “profitable,” “safe” and “easy to understand.” Perhaps in a perfect world, you might add phrases like the ones above related to food – not harming anybody or anything, etc.
(Interestingly, Google lists about 3,260,000 websites related to ethical investing, compared with 3,640,000 for ethical eating.)
Three main challenges face those who would like to invest ethically:
The desire to make money.
Finding out about unethical practices.
“What difference can I make anyway?”
How you deal with these challenges depends on your commitment to doing “the right thing.”
For example, during arms build-up periods, investing in companies that make arms could be particularly profitable. Would you forego such an investing opportunity if you felt dealing in war was unethical?
Going back to the ethical eating analogy, if you feel strongly about eating organically, you willingly pay more for your food.
The Internet makes finding out about ethical vs. unethical investments easier. But it still adds another layer of required research.
The age of major consumer boycotts and other action seems to have passed, at least for now. But personal actions can make a difference, especially to how you feel about yourself.
Whether to consider ethical factors is up to you. At least you do have the freedom to choose.
– Copyright 2018, Mike Grenby
