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> Ethics rarely figures in Investment decisions However, it seems to be a "coming thing". I began altering my investments a handful of years ago to include wha

> Ethics rarely figures in Investment decisions However, it seems to be a "coming thing". I began altering my investments a handful of years ago to include what I found tasteful not just on return, but on ethics//morals as well. I don't see how this is different from "voting with your feet" or "voting with your dollar". Starving companies of investment and sales are part of the same mixture as starving companies of talent.

manishsharan 12y ago
A significant chunk of investment in the American stock market and real estate is done by foreign investors and funds and hedgefunds etc. These decisions are made primarily based on the spreadsheets ; as a backend software guy in the capital markets and banking sector, I see first hand how automated this decision making has become. I have had score of meeting with Investment and Financial advisors ( for s/w development/testing , not financial advise )and I see first had how hard data oriented these folks are in their decision making.
elsewhen 12y ago
i'm sure you know this, but when you invest in a company, you are actually just buying shares off of some other investor - the money doesn't go 'to' to company (except in IPOs and secondary offerings). of course the stock price can affect a company in some pretty important ways.
diminoten 12y ago
In order for this to work, everyone would have to hold the same set of ethics, which is not only untrue, but grossly untrue as you span the globe. Otherwise, the varying ethics among people will more or less wash out, even if everyone did act based on a set of ethics in their investing. Voting with your feet/dollars works because it stays inside the realm of utility, and is therefore much more "standard" across the population. A car is useful almost everywhere, for example, but how that car is made might rub different people different ways.

manishsharan 12y ago

A significant chunk of investment in the American stock market and real estate is done by foreign investors and funds and hedgefunds etc. These decisions are made primarily based on the spreadsheets ; as a backend software guy in the capital markets and banking sector, I see first hand how automated this decision making has become. I have had score of meeting with Investment and Financial advisors ( for s/w development/testing , not financial advise )and I see first had how hard data oriented these folks are in their decision making.

elsewhen 12y ago

i'm sure you know this, but when you invest in a company, you are actually just buying shares off of some other investor - the money doesn't go 'to' to company (except in IPOs and secondary offerings). of course the stock price can affect a company in some pretty important ways.

diminoten 12y ago

In order for this to work, everyone would have to hold the same set of ethics, which is not only untrue, but grossly untrue as you span the globe. Otherwise, the varying ethics among people will more or less wash out, even if everyone did act based on a set of ethics in their investing. Voting with your feet/dollars works because it stays inside the realm of utility, and is therefore much more "standard" across the population. A car is useful almost everywhere, for example, but how that car is made might rub different people different ways.