Author Topic: Socially Conscious Investing post  (Read 4621 times)

Eilonwy

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Socially Conscious Investing post
« on: September 02, 2020, 04:45:44 PM »
This is a topic I'm very interested in, because I feel foolish trying to make socially conscious purchases when my money is building companies doing the things I want to prevent.

MMM's comment is that "your spending dollars will probably have a much bigger impact than your investment dollars."  This is exactly the opposite of what I've assumed to be true, and honestly sounds like very convenient thinking to me. Would love to hear more thoughts about it.

Travis

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Re: Socially Conscious Investing post
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2020, 02:26:02 AM »
This is a topic I'm very interested in, because I feel foolish trying to make socially conscious purchases when my money is building companies doing the things I want to prevent.

MMM's comment is that "your spending dollars will probably have a much bigger impact than your investment dollars."  This is exactly the opposite of what I've assumed to be true, and honestly sounds like very convenient thinking to me. Would love to hear more thoughts about it.

Most of the shares you buy and sell are rarely if ever touched by the corporation once the initial sale is over with.  What you do with them doesn't have that much effect on their bottom line. However, if you just stop buying what they're selling, that will have a significant impact on them.  Take oil for a great example.  Stock trading had little to nothing to do with the price of oil hitting rock bottom the last few years. The first drop was due to increased production saturating the market, and the more recent activity due to nobody driving their cars from COVID lock downs.  Back in March we were discussing how oil companies were practically giving it away because they were running out of places to store it.  People are increasing their driving, but not nearly to pre-COVID levels and a lot of folks in my Facebook feed have mentioned how good it felt to live in a smog-free city for once.

Entire industries stop existing when people lose interest in them or they become obsolete.  Companies you have philosophical or ideological issues with can go the same route if enough people are in agreement.

tooqk4u22

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Re: Socially Conscious Investing post
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2020, 10:30:52 AM »
This is a topic I'm very interested in, because I feel foolish trying to make socially conscious purchases when my money is building companies doing the things I want to prevent.

MMM's comment is that "your spending dollars will probably have a much bigger impact than your investment dollars."  This is exactly the opposite of what I've assumed to be true, and honestly sounds like very convenient thinking to me. Would love to hear more thoughts about it.

Most of the shares you buy and sell are rarely if ever touched by the corporation once the initial sale is over with.  What you do with them doesn't have that much effect on their bottom line. However, if you just stop buying what they're selling, that will have a significant impact on them.  Take oil for a great example.  Stock trading had little to nothing to do with the price of oil hitting rock bottom the last few years. The first drop was due to increased production saturating the market, and the more recent activity due to nobody driving their cars from COVID lock downs.  Back in March we were discussing how oil companies were practically giving it away because they were running out of places to store it.  People are increasing their driving, but not nearly to pre-COVID levels and a lot of folks in my Facebook feed have mentioned how good it felt to live in a smog-free city for once.

Entire industries stop existing when people lose interest in them or they become obsolete.  Companies you have philosophical or ideological issues with can go the same route if enough people are in agreement.

technically true but not practically true because all executives and most higher level managers at these companies are compensated with RSU'S or options so their decision making for the company is influenced or decided by the stock price.

Eilonwy

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Re: Socially Conscious Investing post
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2020, 10:24:01 PM »
Perhaps I'm being very dense but it just doesn't seem feasible that stocks don't financially impact a company. Otherwise, why have them?

anni

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Re: Socially Conscious Investing post
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2021, 11:39:01 AM »
I keep coming back to this post trying to think about whether I should move my investments to a more specific portfolio.

If you don't want to hold stock in a company because you don't want them to succeed, or you don't want the consequences of their success, I think you have to look at whether big external factors other than your personal spending and investing will catch up with them.

I guess you can do a thought experiment: does it make sense to hold Amazon stock via VTI if you hate Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Whole Foods etc? If they're going to make their money either way, I don't see why not, other than your principles. But could the reasons you hate them reasonably end up negatively impacting their share price while elevating the price of more responsible companies during your investment horizon? It seems possible to me, just difficult to predict which companies will suffer and which will grow or adapt and benefit. I think it ends up being outside your control either way. Companies that are primarily oil today could switch into renewables. Amazon could figure out how to be more socially responsible.

Chris Pascale

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Re: Socially Conscious Investing post
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2022, 01:55:58 PM »
I keep coming back to this post trying to think about whether I should move my investments to a more specific portfolio.



Where would you move the money?