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How is the money invested exactly, do you know? Is he actually funding those companies in some way, or does he just own some stocks as part of some very divers
by rudi-c 11y ago
How is the money invested exactly, do you know?
Is he actually funding those companies in some way, or does he just own some stocks as part of some very diversified portfolio?
If it's the former, I really want to know. If it's the latter, stating that the Gates is financially supporting the destruction of agriculture is a very very strong claim. You need to argue that buying a company's stock on an open market does something significant besides increase the price of that stock by some small amount, or that the increase is meaningful. I have a hard time imagining what practical impact it would have on Monsanto's short term or long term operations that would justify using words such as "hypocrite".
There are investment funds that try to avoid "dirty" stocks, and it maybe it would be morally better to invest only in those funds. Until then, is everyone who invests in an index fund "dirty"? Monsanto is part of the S&P 500 after all.
- sametmax 11y agoInvesting is not a number game. It has consequences on the real world. If you buy a stock of people making weapons, yes, you are helping to create a world with more weapons. You are, quite litteraly, owning a piece of a company making weapons. You can argue that you are ok with building weapon. It's another debate. But you can't say you are not helping. Companies are selling shares on the market because it helps them. And if tomorrow you make a big speech about gun control, it makes you a hypocrite. You can slice it in many way, use semantics, play the cards of the layer of abstractions. But in the end, it's a simple truth.