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I'd be more concerned that if a law maker had a million of Tesla stock and Tesla lobbied them, it would take someone with concrete morals to not factor in their

I'd be more concerned that if a law maker had a million of Tesla stock and Tesla lobbied them, it would take someone with concrete morals to not factor in their potential gains. Humans are not great at making decisions without considering their own incentives - you can trick yourself and your subconscious can sway you.

jbverschoor 5y ago
Morals, or a different risk/reward ratio
giantg2 5y ago
The people with the best morals/ethics understand the subconscious part and remove themself from the situation by not holding individual stocks in that capacity. As a society, I would hope we could do a similar thing and legislate it as a requirement.
caseysoftware 5y ago
It gets even more complicated than that.. When they bought that Tesla stock, was it just because they thought Tesla was a great investment opportunity or was it because they believe in a renewable energy economy? If it was an ideological investment too, then they may make decisions to support the industry (and therefore their investments) naturally without any nudging. The lobbying/campaign contributions are just gravy at that point. I lean towards NPR saying "mutual funds or nothing" but it doesn't address the fact that they could still leak sensitive information and/or help out a family member, friend, etc, etc
mox1 5y ago
Ohh, you mean like the current Democratic leader of the House of Representatives? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nancy-pelosi-buys-tesla-calls-191017279.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nancy-pelosi-buys-tesla-calls...