The Null Device

'Ethical' investments aren't

Bad news for those hoping to protect the environment and global human rights by making a tidy sum on the stock market: New research has shown that most "ethical" or "socially responsible" investment funds aren't. To make more of a buck (and compete in the marketplace), most of the funds surveyed invested in fossil fuels, companies with histories of human-rights violation and, in one case, tobacco companies. They rationalise their decisions as investing in the "best of sector", i.e., the least evil company in a particular sector.

(Btw, which company is the "best of sector" in the high-tech armaments industry? Boeing. Lockheed or Raytheon?)

There are 1 comments on "'Ethical' investments aren't":

Posted by: Robert http://mentalspace.ranters.net Mon Jan 6 15:53:50 2003

The CIS have been arguing this for a while, and I agree with them. Corporate interests and social/environmental interests are almost totally exclusive of each other. And where they overlap, it's accidental.